Land spout spotted over brgy Kalunasan; cyclones expected in C. Visayas this year

A LAND spout was spotted by residents of barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City during a downpour that broke out at 5:15 p.m last Friday.

One of the witnesses, external consultant Cerwin Eviota of CTE Corporate Solutions, took a photo of the landspout on his Nokia 92 cell phone.

He said he was in barangay Kalunasan when the land spout broke out.

He said the land spout seemed to hit barangay Antuangan behind Buhisan Dam in Cebu City.

Eviota said he was at home watching the news when his nephews argued over their sighting of the land spout.

“My eyes popped out and my jaw dropped on seeing it for the first time in my life. It took me seconds to think of taking a shot. I then took my LG P690 phone but it was off so I used my old N92 phone instead to take a photo,” Eviota said.

Eviota described the land spout as “looking like an inverted cone shape moving in a circular motion.”

He said it was raining hard when the land spout appeared.

“It looked like something from the movie ’Twister’. The sky was filled with dark clouds. It was a scary phenomenon, because a twister only happens in plain areas, while ours is mountainous,” Eviota said.

He said the land spout lasted at least five minutes. Barangay Kalunasan chairman Nunilon Monares said there was a slight rain in their area when the land spout came out.

The Mactan office of the state weather bureau Pagasa said their radar was unable to detect the phenomenon last Friday.

Acting Pagasa Cebu chief Alfredo Quiblat said what was spotted in barangay Kalunasan wasn’t a twister or tornado.

Quiblat said twisters usually appear as funnel-clouds that move in a circular  motion.

When the funnel cloud appears in contact over the water, it is called a water spout.

On land, it is called a land spout which is weaker than a tornado but still produces strong winds that can inflict damage, Quiblat said.

He said tornadoes/twisters rarely occur in the country.

He said while tornadoes could occur it is caused by thunderstorms.

Quiblat said the downpours experienced in Cebu were caused by the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) affecting the Visayas and Mindanao area.

Pagasa said despite a developing El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific, three to four tropical cyclones were anticipated to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) this month.

Based on reports from the Pagasa Climatology and Agrometeorology Division (CAD), there were indicators that the phenomenon, once full-blown, would affect Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao by the end of the year.

The agency’s CAD noted that there was below normal rainfall in Tagbilaran, Bohol Province, last month where the average rainfall in previous years for August was at 100 mm per hour.

In its 5 p.m advisory yesterday, Pagasa said Palawan, the Visayas and the northern section of Mindanao would have mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms because of the ITCZ.

The rest of the country, including Metro Manila, would have generally good weather except for possible rains later in the day.

The areas are forecast to be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or evening.

Moderate-to-strong winds blowing from the southeast would prevail over Northern Luzon and its coastal waters would be moderate to rough.

Elsewhere, light to moderate winds coming from the southwest to southeast will prevail and the coastal waters along these areas will be slight to moderate. /Joy Cherry Quito, Correspondent with an Inquirer report