Pagasa sees more rains, cooler temperatures

Metro Manilans may expect frequent afternoon thunderstorms as the rainy season draws near, weather forecasters said Wednesday.

Some parts of Metro Manila experienced rainshowers anew Wednesday afternoon, after Tuesday’s refreshing downpour, thanks to the weakening ridge of a high pressure area east of Palawan.

The ridge of a high pressure area suppresses rising warm air that would otherwise form into clouds. Now that it was weakening, more clouds were forming to produce rainshowers and thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening, forecaster Aldczar Aurelio said.

With the rainshowers, Wednesday’s temperature cooled a bit to 35 degrees Celsius at the Science Garden in Quezon City. Farther north, the temperature remained high at 36.7 degrees in Tuguegarao, Cagayan, and Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.

For the rest of the week, Pagasa said isolated rainshowers and thunderstorms may be expected in Luzon and the Visayas, and scattered rainshowers in Mindanao owing to the intertropical wind convergence.

“In general, we will have good weather,” Aurelio said.

The public, however, may expect temperatures to shoot up before the rainy season starts later this month.

Meanwhile, Pagasa said an annular solar eclipse would occur on May 21 and would be visible from China, most of Russia, and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia. It will also be visible in Hawaii, the Arctic regions and most of North America.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, obscuring the image of the sun as viewed from the earth.

An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon’s apparent diameter is smaller than the sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring) and blocking most of the sun’s light.

In the Philippines, it will be observed as a partial solar eclipse.