MANILA, (PNA) — Government’s weather agency expects rainy weather in Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and surroundings until around the middle of this week.
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) weatherman Jori Loiz said a tropical storm (international name “Pabuk”) northeast of the country and outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) continues enhancing the prevailing southwest monsoon or ‘habagat,’ driving downpour in the areas.
”We expect ‘Pabuk’ to move away from the country around Wednesday (Sept. 25),” he said.
A high pressure area (HPA) north of “Pabuk” is preventing this storm from moving northwards away from PAR, he noted.
He said PAGASA expects that HPA to “give way” by mid-week, however, enabling “Pabuk” to finally move.
“Pabuk” is gaining strength so it’s also possible for this storm to tunnel through the HPA instead then head north, he noted.
PAGASA is expecting the southwest monsoon’s gradual termination around late September.
However, Loiz said PAGASA continues monitoring conditions to see if ‘habagat’ rain expected in the succeeding days will be as intense as last month’s downpour from onslaught of the southwest monsoon enhanced by tropical storm ‘Maring’ (international name ‘Trami’).
PAGASA earlier reported data from its station in Sangley show ‘habagat’ enhanced by ‘Maring’ dumped on Aug. 21 a record 475.4 mm of rainfall in Cavite province.
PAGASA said such downpour exceeded the 354.2 mm rainfall its Sangley station registered for Cavite from onslaught of ‘habagat’ there on Aug. 7 last year.
Cavite’s record 2013 downpour also surpassed the Sangley station’s 457.2 mm normal August rainfall value, PAGASA continued.
The Sangley station covers Cavite and generates weather data representative of conditions in the province, PAGASA noted.