`Quinta’ exits toward West PH Sea; storm signals lifted

Source: Project Noah | 12:00 pm, December 27, 2012,

MANILA, Philippines–“Quinta” weakened further as it made its exit toward the West Philippine Sea on Thursday, turning back into a low-pressure area, and prompting the lifting of all public storm signals across the country.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) further downgraded the status of the weather disturbance, whose center as of mid-Thursday was already 220 kilometers west of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

Forecaster Ricky Fabregas said that based on current models, it was very likely that “Quinta” would just dissipate within the Philippine area of responsibility instead of gaining strength again.

He said this was due to its interaction with the cold winds brought by the northeast monsoon.

Quinta, the 17th and quite possibly the last tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in 2012, first formed as a low-pressure area in the Pacific and developed into a tropical depression then a storm.

Upon making landfall in Leyte on Wednesday, the weather disturbance then did a complete reversal, becoming a depression again and then back into a low-pressure area as it made several landfalls on islands in the Visayas.

The Philippines is visited annually by an average of 20 storms.