Tacloban sweltered as rains battered Metro Manila

A street scene in Tacloban taken on Dec. 2, 2011. PHOTO BY RICK ALBERTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—While torrential rains caused widespread flooding in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon over the past few days, this city has been dealing with “hot” weather, an unusual occurrence this time of the year.

“Under our normal weather pattern, we are supposed to experience some heavy rains as we are entering our rainy season. But since the start of this month, we have yet to experience some rains,” said Anthony Sanchez, weather forecaster of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services station here.

Sanchez said Tacloban experienced its hottest day on Wednesday this August with a temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius.

He attributed the unusual weather pattern to climate change.

Since the start of the month, Tacloban’s temperature ranged from 25.1 degrees Celsius (on August 2 and August 6)  to 35.2 degrees Celsius (2 p.m. on August 8).

Tacloban health officer Jaime Opinion said that with this kind of weather condition, people should take extra precautions like using an umbrella whenever going outdoors “to lessen exposure to heat and sunlight.”

Opinion warned that this kind of weather condition could result to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

His office, however, had yet to receive reports on cases heat stroke, he said.

Opinion also advised the public to drink at least eight glasses of water every day and avoid wearing thick clothes.