Don’t let the sun’s appearance make you lower your guard.
An active low pressure area (LPA) spotted off Central Luzon may
intensify into a storm and enter the country’s territory by Monday,
while the southwest monsoon will continue to bring rains over several
provinces, the state weather bureau said Saturday.
Not only that, two to three more storms are expected to hit the
Philippines this month alone and possibly four more next month, said
Jori Loiz, senior forecaster at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical
and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
“We should not let our defenses down in the next few days,” Loiz said in a television interview.
New storm
As of 2 p.m. Saturday, the low pressure was observed at 1,020
kilometers east of Central Luzon, but it was still too far to affect any
part of the country within the next 24 hours, Pagasa said in an
advisory.
Loiz said, however, that there was now a good likelihood that the low
pressure would strengthen into a storm. “By Monday, northeastern
Mindanao and Eastern Visayas may experience the direct effect of the
LPA,” he said.
Pagasa said the southwest monsoon (or habagat) has weakened, but will
continue to bring mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and
thunderstorms over northern and Central Luzon, particularly in the
provinces of Ilocos, La Union, Pangasinan, Zambales, Pampanga, Bataan,
Tarlac and Bulacan.
12 more storms
Annually, an average of about 20 storms hit the Philippines. The latest was Typhoon “Gener,” which departed earlier this month. Gener’s exit was marked by incessant monsoon rains that submerged large parts of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces from Aug. 6 to 9.
Servando said storms that enter the country in August, September and October usually hit the eastern seaboards of the Visayas and Luzon, while in the last quarter, they are more likely to strike Northern Mindanao.
