MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is entering the dry season, prompting state meteorologists to warn of potentially warmer temperatures in the coming days and weeks.
Updates from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) on Tuesday afternoon showed that warm and humid weather would be felt over most parts of the country, except for Northern Luzon.
Due to the tail end of a frontal system, areas in the northern part of the country, such as the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Cagayan Valley, will continue to have cloudy skies and rains from Tuesday night to Wednesday.
However, temperatures in the rest of Luzon and the country may begin to rise as the days pass, particularly now that the low-pressure area east of Mindoro has stopped affecting weather systems.
“Bukas naman inaasahan pa rin ang maulap, may mga pag-ulan at pagkidlat at pagkulog sa lalawigan ng Cagayan. Sa natitirang bahagi ng Luzon, mainit at maalisnangan, may tsansa ng ilang mga pulo-pulong dagliang pag-ulan o mga pagkidlat at pagkulog lalo na sa dakong hapon o gabi,” senior weather specialist Chris Perez said.
(For tomorrow we are expecting cloudy skies with rains and thunderstorms over the province of Cagayan. But for the rest of Luzon, warm and humid weather with a chance of scattered and short rain showers and thunderstorm activity would occur by afternoon or night.)
“So medyo tataas na po ‘yong mga inaashan nating minimum and maximum temperature sa mga darating na araw dahil nasa transition na po tayo towards the dry season dito sa ating bansa,” he added.
(Our expected minimum and maximum temperatures may start increasing in the coming days as we are in the transition period to the dry season of the country.)
Perez also showed wind models which predict a weak surge of the northeast monsoon or amihan that would only affect the extreme northern Luzon area. On the other hand, the expected prevailing wind pattern would be the easterlies or warm winds from the Pacific Ocean.
“So kabaliktaran ng Amihan, na kung saan ang amihan ay cold and dry at nagdadala nga ng mas malamig na daytime or nighttime temperature sa ating bansa, ang easterlies po, warm and humid by nature,” he said.
(So if the northeast monsoon brings cold and dry winds and colder daytime and nighttime temperatures, the easterlies bring warm and humid conditions by nature.)
“So ibig sabihin no’n kahit sa gabi basta umiiral ang easterlies ay posible tayong makaranas or makaramdam ng medyo maalinsangang panahon, pero nagdudulot din ito ng mga localized thunderstorms ” he added.
(That means that even at night, as long as the easterlies prevail, we can experience humid weather although this also causes localized thunderstorms.)
For Wednesday, temperatures over Metro Manila would range from 25 to 33 degrees Celsius, Legazpi and Puerto Princesa with 24 to 32 degrees, Laoag with 24 to 31 degrees. Only Tagaytay and Baguio would have relatively colder temperatures, at 21 to 30 degrees and 15 to 24 degrees, respectively.
The same scenarios are expected in the Visayas, as temperatures across Iloilo, Cebu, Tacloban play between 25 to 32 degrees Celsius, 24 to 32 degrees for Cagayan de Oro, 24 to 34 degrees for Zamboanga, and 24 to 33 degrees for Davao.
No gale warning has been raised as for now but sea condition on the western, northern, and eastern seaboards of Luzon, down to Visayas’ eastern waters, would be moderate. The rest of the country’s seas would have a slight to moderate condition.
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