Generally good weather seen towards Christmas

MANILA, Philippines — After last week’s typhoon and flashfloods, the country can look forward to generally good weather this week leading up to Christmas.

In its forecast for the week up to December 25, the state weather bureau said the “whole country will generally have an improved weather condition” with only isolated rains and thunderstorms.

Forecaster Aldczar Aurelio of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the northeast monsoon and tail-end of a cold front that combined to cause flash floods over most of Luzon including Metro Manila last week in the wake of Typhoon Nona, would weaken this week.

The low pressure area residue from Tropical Depression Onyok over Mindanao dissipated early Sunday.

For Monday, December 21, however, PAGASA has warned that Aurora and Quezon provinces will still be threatened by flashfloods and landslides due to moderate to heavy monsoon rains.

Bicol region, which was devastated by Typhoon Nona, will continue to experience light to moderate rains due to the tail-end of a cold front, according to the weather bureau.

The rest of Luzon will have light rains, while the Visayas and Mindanao will have isolated rain showers or thunderstorms.

“There is no weather disturbance within the next three days,” Aurelio said.

Meanwhile, nine municipalities along the Angat River in Bulacan also remain threatened by flashfloods since authorities will continue to release water from Angat Dam this week.

After drying up due to El Niño during most of the year, Angat Dam’s level significantly rose after heavy rains since Wednesday.

The dam level remained critically high as of Sunday, nearly four meters above the normal capacity of 212 meters above sea level.

PAGASA hydrologist Richard Orendain said that at 11 a.m. Sunday, three gates were opened to release water at the rate of 898 cubic meters/ second since Angat Dam reached close to 216 meters at 9 a.m.

After five hours or at 2 p.m., the water level only went down by .2 meters or to 215.7 meters due to continued light rains over the Angat watershed and runoff water from the rains the night before.

“This (release) will continue until the level is down to 212 masl. But the release should be gradual. We have to bring down the level or else the situation will be more dangerous. The dam is already old,” Orendain said.

Flood warning has been raised over Norzagaray, Angat, San Rafael, Bustos, Baliuag, Pulilan, Plaridel, Calumpit and Hagonoy municipalities.

“Yes, it will cause flooding because the volume of water released is significant,” Orendain said.  SFM