MANILA, Philippines—The downpours being experienced in Metro Manila and many parts of Luzon are just localized thunderstorms and not yet indicative of the onset of the wet season, the state weather bureau said Friday.
The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) remains dominant across Palawan and Mindanao, bringing widespread rains over those areas, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Pagasa forecaster Aldczar Aurelio said it was still too early to declare the start of the rainy season as the criteria, including rainfall of 25 millimeters over five days, with three successive days of at least 1 millimeter of rain, have not been met.
“We usually declare it in the last week of May or the first week of June. Since the last week of May is over, we will see if the conditions will have been met by next week,” he said.
Based on Pagasa’s outlook for Saturday, Central Luzon, Metro Manila, the Southern Tagalog region, Western Visayas and Mindanao will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rain showers and thunderstorms.
The rest of the country will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms mostly over the western section, it added.
Light to moderate winds blowing from the east to southeast will prevail over Luzon and Visayas, and from the south to southeast over Mindanao. The coastal waters throughout the archipelago will be slight to moderate, Pagasa said.