Warmer days ahead as ‘hot’, ‘dry’ season nears — PAGASA

MB – Published March 22, 2021, 2:00 PM

“Dry season” in the Philippines is just around the corner.

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s (PAGASA) Climatology and Prediction Section chief Ana Liza Solis said the cold weather-associated northeast monsoon or “amihan” season is about to end.

“Mas mainit na temperatura ang inaasahan natin dahil malapit na i-terminate ang amihan (we expect warmer temperatures because the amihan will soon be terminated). It’s just around the corner, in the next couple of days we will terminate the amihan,” she said during PAGASA’s climate outlook forum on Monday, March 22.

PAGASA’s declaration of the end of northeast monsoon season will also be the beginning of warm and dry season in the Philippines.

In 2020, the onset of dry season was declared on March 20. 

PAGASA weather specialist Ariel Rojas said a weakening amihan will prevail in some parts of Luzon in the next few days as the country transitions to dry season.

Light amihan rains may affect Batanes and Babuyan group of islands.

Meanwhile, the tail-end of frontal system, which is the shearline between the cold amihan and warm easterlies, may bring scattered rain showers and thunderstorms over Aurora, the rest of Cagayan Valley, and Cordillera Administrative Region.

The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms due to the easterlies, or the warm winds coming from the Pacific Ocean.

The presence of more frequent thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening manifests the climate transition from amihan to dry season.

Rojas said PAGASA is not expecting the formation of a weather disturbance, either a low pressure area or tropical cyclone, within the country’s area of responsibility in the next three to five days. 

SOURCE: https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/22/warmer-days-ahead-as-hot-dry-season-nears-pagasa/