It’s getting wetter, but it’s still summer

Screengrab from https://noah.dost.gov.ph/

It ain’t over yet.

The days are becoming wetter and bits of ice as large as fingernails fell on a portion of Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna province, during a heavy downpour past noon on Tuesday.

In addition, a tornado swept through a portion of a village in Tigaon, Camarines Sur province, damaging power lines and crops on Monday afternoon.

But it’s still summer, the state weather bureau said.

The onset of the rainy season may take place as early as the last two weeks of May or as late as mid-June, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.

“Right now, the conditions for the rainy season have not been met,” said Pagasa forecaster Manny Mendoza.

One criterion for the declaration of the wet season is a rainfall level of at least 25 millimeters (mm) over five days, with three consecutive days of at least 1-mm rain.

This condition also has to be met by five climate stations all over the country.

Citing 2000-2010 records, Mendoza said Pagasa typically declared the beginning of the rainy season from mid-May to early June, although it occasionally did so in the first half of May or the second half of June.

Hail

The hailstorm in Los Baños was felt around 1:10 p.m. and lasted for 15 to 20 minutes on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

There were, however, no reports of hail on the lower campus and anywhere else in the town.

Rolando Inciong, public affairs head of the Asean Center for Biodiversity, with an office in Mt. Makiling, said one of the members of his staff had noticed that what they thought were raindrops falling on the roof “sounded differently.”

“When we checked, we saw ice particles, each about as big as a pinky fingernail, everywhere,” Inciong said in a phone interview.

He said strong rain and wind accompanied the hailstones.

Inciong said it was his first time to experience hail in the last five years.

Pagasa issued thunderstorm advisories over Paete, Kalayaan, Lumban, Calamba City and Los Baños in Laguna, around 12:45 p.m. and warned the public against “heavy rains, gusty winds, lightning and possible flooding.”

Julie Mimes of Pagasa said a hailstorm was expected based on the agency’s weather monitoring.

Tornado

PO1 Maricel Agayo, public information officer of Tigaon Municipal Police, said the tornado, which was large enough to topple down a big narra tree, suddenly hit a part of Barangay San Rafael in Tigaon at 1:30 p.m.

The tornado, which caused an hourlong power outage, was preceded by a loud thunder. It appeared after the skies turned dark on a normally bright hot day.

Agayo said the tornado also damaged crops like sweet potatoes, banana trees and corn, and uprooted small trees.

Convergence zone

In a bulletin, Pagasa said the intertropical convergence zone was still affecting southern Mindanao, bringing cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and thunderstorms over much of the island.

The Zamboanga Peninsula and the provinces of Sarangani and Davao del Sur will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rain showers and thunderstorms, it said.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country will be partly cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms, mostly over the western section.

Light to moderate winds blowing from the south to southwest will prevail over Luzon and winds from the southeast to south will prevail over the rest of the country, Pagasa said.

The coastal waters throughout the archipelago will be slight to moderate.

Originally posted: 5:45 pm | Tuesday, May 21st, 2013