Rains don’t mean El Niño’s going away: Pagasa

By NITZ ARANCON

Correspondent

EL NIÑO hasn’t loosened it grip, and neither do the recent downpours mean it’s going away for good.

“It does not mean that if there is El Niño, there will be no rain. There will be especially in the month of August because it’s the rainy season,” said weather specialist Luz Mercado of the El Salvador station of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Mercado said the El Niño phenomenon’s effects would be felt more from the last quarter up to the first or second quarter of next year.

Mercado said Pagasa was expecting a lesser number of typhoons from October to December, this year, and until January or February because of El Niño.

But Pagasa earlier warned of stronger low pressure areas and typhoons ahead because of warm waters in the Pacific Ocean. Warm waters serve as fuel to storms.

Mercado said the El Niño phenomenon means warmer waters in the Pacific Ocean, and more moisture that would likely be brought by winds elsewhere––away from the country.

“Kung  mag El Niño ganidinhisa Tropical Pacific, La Niña usab didto sa South America, Peru, ug uban pang  dapit sa pikas aping sa kalibutan kaya ng mga panganod nga matigom gikan dinhi, mapadpad man sa hangin padulong didto,” Mercado explained.

She said this explains why Pagasa was expecting lesser storms in the country this year.

Mercado said the country normally experiences 20 to 27 typhoons a year. But with the El Niño,  she said, only seven to 11 typhoons are expected because of lesser cloud formations in the country despite the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

She said the recent downpours were expected because of the rainy season, and downpours are always expected from May to February.

Mercado said the rainy season “did not disturb” El Niño but the phenomenon would result in lesser downpours.