The heat is on, says Pagasa

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The mercury may be rising and forecasters are predicting hotter days ahead for Cagayan Valley, but residents of the northernmost region have learned to cope with the sweltering heat this time of year.

Leo Buñag, officer in charge of the regional services division for Northern Luzon of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), advised Cagayan Valley residents to brace for hotter days, based on prevailing weather conditions.

“We expect to hit 40 degrees (Celsius) this year, based on the readings that we have gathered so far,” he said.

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan’s capital and the regional center, recorded the highest temperature in the country at 42.2 degrees Celsius on Aug. 19, 1912, and on May 11, 1969.

At around 2 p.m. on April 2, the temperature in Tuguegarao, where Pagasa’s weather station is located, hit 37 degrees, the hottest recorded this year, Buñag said.

Purita Licas, regional director of the Philippine Information Agency based in the city, said, “We have gotten used to [the heat] here. We have our own ways of adapting such as staying indoors when the day is at its hottest.”

Pagasa said more of the same hot and humid weather is expected as the ridge of a high pressure area, which typically brings sunshine and clear skies, extends across Luzon.

“The whole country will have generally good weather aside from isolated rain showers or thunderstorms mostly over eastern Visayas and Mindanao,”  agasa said in its 5 p.m. bulletin.

Light to moderate winds blowing from the east to southeast will prevail throughout the country and coastal waters will be slight to moderate, Pagasa said.

Easterly winds, or warm winds emanating from the Pacific, remain the dominant weather system in the country, with temperatures ranging between 23 and 35 degrees Celsius in Metro Manila.

On Thursday, Metro Manila temperatures peaked at 34.7 degrees Celsius at Pagasa’s Science Garden in Quezon City, a touch cooler than Wednesday’s 35.2 degrees, the hottest day so far in 2013. Relative humidity ranged between 48 percent at 2 p.m. and 90 percent at 5 a.m.