Blame ‘habagat,’ not ‘Gener’

NEITHER RAIN NOR FLOODWATERS… It’s business as usual for this barber shop in Valenzuela City, which is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. despite the knee-high waters. A similar photo that appeared on the front page of the July 27, 1999, issue of the Inquirer won a CMMA award for Best News Photograph. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

For its erratic bursts of rain and wind and generally fickle nature, the “bipolar” weather disturbance known as Typhoon “Gener” has become the butt of online jokes.

Gener—which started out as a low pressure area (LPA) in the Pacific, turned into a tropical depression, then a tropical storm, a typhoon and back to a tropical storm—left the Philippines for good on Friday, but not before striking the fancy and humor of netizens.

For a whole week, the wet and windy storm brought death and destruction across Metro Manila and outlying provinces, changing directions as it plodded northward, and at one point, spawning fierce storm surges that slammed into the seawall in Manila Bay and flooded Roxas Boulevard on Manila.

It’s southwest monsoon

The storm had enhanced the southwest monsoon, locally known as “hanging habagat,” according to the state weather bureau. One minute, rain and wind came in fits and spurts; the next minute, it rained cats and dogs.

Singer-songwriter Jim Paredes summed up the online sentiment on his Twitter account (@jimparedes): “From what Twitter peeps say, Gener is bipolar, a girl (fickle), needs Imodium or Diatabs, has an FB (Facebook) status of ‘It’s complicated.’”

Another Twitter account with an obscene name joked: “Ikaw ba si Gener? Ang hangin mo kasi eh! (Are you Gener? Because you’re so windy.)”

Explaining the mercurial weather, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the blame should fall on the southwest monsoon, which Gener had enhanced during its stay.

Erratic, unpredictable

“That’s characteristic of the southwest monsoon. It’s really erratic and unpredictable,” Pagasa Administrator Nathaniel Servando told the Inquirer. He said the southwest monsoon would continue prevailing until September.

“The nature of the southwest monsoon is it brings intermittent rains. It can last five minutes, or there will be continuous rain for 30 minutes, and there are breaks in between,” Pagasa forecaster Chris Perez said.

First posted 12:55 am | Saturday, August 4th, 2012