Baguio shivers as temps drop

BAGUIO CITY—The biting cold, which residents here missed during the Yuletide holidays in December, arrived on the mornings of Monday and Tuesday when they least expected it.

The mercury dropped to 10.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, the coldest morning so far this year. It followed the sharp temperature drop to 11.5 degrees Celsius at 5 a.m. on Monday, from a relatively warmer Sunday when the temperature was 15.6 degrees and on Saturday when the barometer recorded 14.6 degrees.

Parents had to bundle up schoolchildren because of the unexpected chill that was felt as early as 4 a.m. at the start of the week. By Tuesday, some university students were out wearing shorts but covered with thick leather jackets and parkas bought from secondhand bargain stores.

Even Batanes, the northernmost province, has cooled down. On Monday, temperature in Basco, the capital town, was 12.8 degrees Celsius, said Constantino Gavilan, a weather forecaster of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration station.

But the mornings were cooler over the weekend, he said.

The minimum temperature on Friday morning was 21 degrees Celsius but the mercury dropped suddenly to 14.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday and to 12 degrees Celsius on Sunday, Gavilan said. Gobleth Moulic and Juliet Cataluña, Inquirer Northern Luzon