Storm free until Wednesday,”habagat’ continues to bring occasional rains over PHL

A woman wades her way on Imelda avenue circa Sept 2009 in the Philippines. Typhoon Ondoy left hundreds of thousand families displaced and killed hundreds of people. Timothy Medrano / Shutterstock

MANILA — The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) Sunday said the country will continue to be spared from storms in the first three days of the week.

In an interview, PAGASA weather forecaster Buddy Javier said they are not anticipating any weather disturbance to develop into tropical cyclone that will affect the country until Wednesday.

Javier said that PAGASA still expects one to two more storms to hit the country before the end of the month.

He noted that the next tropical cyclone that will visit the country will be named “Florita.”

Next month, he said the state weather bureau is expecting three to four storms to hit the country.

Every year, an average of about 18 to 20 storms affect the Philippines, according to the PAGASA.

Javier said southwest monsoon or “hanging habagat” continues to be the dominant weather system affecting the western sections of Luzon and Visayas.

He said the southwest monsoon, which is associated with the occurrence of intermittent to continuous rains, is the prevailing wind system during the rainy season.

He added that Mindanao continues to experience light to moderate rains due to extending southwest monsoon

Javier said some parts of the Visayas will experience rains due to wind convergence.

Javier warned the public of the “high risk” of flooding and landslide in some parts of Mindanao.

He said the intermittent rains in thepast days will likely increase risk of flash floods and landslides due to the already saturated soil.

For Sunday forecast, Javier said southwest monsoon will bring occasional rains over Metro Manila, Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), Cavite, Bataan, Zambales, Pangasinan and Western Visayas while Mindanao will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms.

The rest of the country will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms.

He also said that the agency did not issue a gale warning as fishermen can venture to the sea.

PAGASA said moderate to strong winds coming from the southwest will prevail over Luzon and its coastal waters will be moderate to rough.

Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate blowing from the south to southwest with slight to moderate seas.

For weekly outlook, Javier said Monday (June 23) until Tuesday (June 24), the “Habagat” or Southwest Monsoon will continue to persist affecting the western sections of Luzon and Visayas.

It will experience partly cloudy to cloudy skies with occasional rains is expected to prevail over the said areas while rest of the archipelago will likely to be partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated afternoon or evening rainshowers or thunderstorms.

He added that throughout the rest of the outlook period (June 25 – 27), the entire country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated light to moderate rainshowers or thunderstorms.