InterAksyon The online news portal of TV5 MANILA -- The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has spotted a cloud cluster off the Pacific Ocean that intensified into a low pressure area (LPA) on Sunday afternoon. Pagasa senior weather forecaster Jori Loiz said the LPA is expected to enter the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) on Monday. Loiz said the weather disturbance will likely enter the PAR via east of Mindanao and will move toward Central Visayas. He said that based on their numerical models as of Sunday afternoon, the LPA has a 50-50 chance to develop into tropical depression as the agency continues to monitor it. In the next 24 hours and until Tuesday, Loiz noted that parts of Northern and Central Luzon will experience cloudy skies with passing light rains due to the effects of the northeast monsoon or “hanging amihan.” The rest of the country including Metro Manila, he added, will have partly cloudy skies to at times cloudy with possible afternoon or evening rains due to localized thunderstorms. Loiz said the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has already upgraded the weather disturbance into a tropical depression. Once it enters the country as a cyclone, Loiz said it will be named Zoraida. Zoraida would be the third cyclone to enter the country this month and the 25th for this year. He noted that Pagasa still expects at least four to five cyclones to affect the country before the year ends. Meanwhile, Loiz said Yolanda left the Philippine territory at around 1:30 p.m. Saturday. He said Yolanda is not expected to make a U-turn since it continued to move toward Vietnam. Citing the official data from the Pagasa, Loiz said Yolanda is now the strongest cyclone, so far, to hit the country this year. He noted that Yolanda smashed into the provinces of Leyte and Samar Friday morning with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometers an hour (kph), surpassing the 215-kph winds of September typhoon Odette, the strongest cyclone that entered the Philippines this year before Yolanda unseated it. “So far, ito (Yolanda) na ang pinakamalakas na bagyo na pumasok sa ating bansa ngayong taon. Kino-consider din itong (Yolanda is the strongest typhoon to enter the country this year. It is also considered) one of the strongest typhoons in world history,” Loiz said.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:09:22 +0000
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