Falcon to exit Saturday but another low pressure area brewing—Pagasa

MANILA, Philippines – Tropical Storm “Falcon” is expected to exit the Philippines Saturday morning if it maintains its current north-northwest track toward southern Japan, the weather bureau said Friday.

Aldczar Aurelio, weather forecaster at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, said however that another low pressure area was brewing over the Pacific Ocean and might merge with Falcon on its way out.

Better skies are expected Sunday, when Falcon would have moved out of the Philippine area of responsibility, Aurelio said.

Heavy rains pouring over much of Metro Manila and Southern Luzon are due to the southwest monsoon that Pagasa has been warning about all week, Aurelio said.

A Pagasa bulletin at 10 a.m. Friday said the storm was located 330 kilometers east of Basco, Batanes, with maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 100 kph.

Public Storm Signal No. 1 is still up in the Calayan, Babuyan and the Batanes groups of islands in northern Philippines.

In a press briefing at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Friday, Pagasa Acting Administrator Nathaniel Servando allayed fears that the rainfall brought by Falcon was equivalent to the amount of rainfall brought by Typhoon “Ondoy” (international name: Ketsana) which devastated Metro Manila and nearby provinces in 2009.

Servando said that although the rains were heavy and continuous on Thursday, only 150 millimeters of rainfall was recorded from Falcon. This amount is only 20 percent of what Ondoy poured in 2009.