Severe Tropical Storm Kristine moving farther away from PH landmass

MANILA, Philippines — Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) is moving farther away from Philippine landmass as it turned northwest early Friday morning, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.

As of 2:00 a.m., Kristine was spotted some 115 kilometers west of Bacnotan, La Union, packing maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour (kph) near center with gustiness of 115 kph, moving and northwest at 10 kph.

Kristine “is forecast to move westward over the next 12 hours” before exiting the Philippine area of responsibility on Friday afternoon.

“Kristine will be looping over the West Philippine Sea on Sunday and Monday and move generally eastward towards the general direction of the PAR region,” Pagasa said.

“However, this scenario heavily depends on the behavior of the tropical cyclone east of the PAR region.”