It’s not quite summer yet despite the heat

MANILA, Philippines—The heat is on but it’s not summer yet.

The state weather bureau is holding off officially declaring the arrival of summer as it expects a resurgence of cold winds blowing in from the northeast beginning Thursday until the weekend.

Cold winds spawned by a high pressure area off Japan are expected to interact with the easterlies, or warm, humid winds from the Pacific Ocean, possibly causing cloudiness and thunderstorms over Northern Luzon, a forecaster said.

“It feels like summer already, but it’s too early to make that declaration because of the expected northeasterly winds,” said Jori Loiz of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

“But when that’s over, if we see that the easterlies become the dominant weather system, then we can already declare that summer is here,” he said, adding that this might happen next week.

Loiz noted that the maximum temperature recorded in Metro Manila on Monday was 33.3 degrees Celsius, indicating typical summer heat, but in the days before that, the temperature was relatively low, about 31 degrees or so.

Easterlies are affecting the eastern section of Luzon and the Visayas, bringing cloudy skies with light to moderate rain showers and thunderstorms over the Cagayan Valley, Bicol, Eastern Visayas, and Caraga regions, and the provinces of Aurora and Quezon, Pagasa said in a bulletin.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country will be partly cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms, it said.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the east will prevail over the eastern sections of Luzon and the Visayas. Coastal waters in these areas will be moderate to rough.

Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the east to northeast with slight to moderate seas, Pagasa said.

The weather bureau also issued on Wednesday a special advisory for Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, the two provinces worst hit by the Typhoon Pablo in December.

The two provinces will be partly cloudy to at times cloudy with isolated light rains or thunderstorms from Wednesday to Friday, Pagasa said.