Pagasa spots new low-pressure area

By NITZ ARANCON
with SHIELA MAE BUTLIG
Correspondents

A NEW weather system with a relative huge cloud formation is entering Philippine territory and could morph into typhoon, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) warned yesterday.

Luz Mercado, a weather specialist at the Pagasa station in El Salvador, Misamis Oriental, said the low-pressure area would likely enter Philippine territory today or tomorrow.

The new weather system is headed towards the Davao region and Caraga, a region battered by continuous rains and flashfloods last week, Mercado said.

Northern Mindanao, the city included, would likely feel the effects of the weather system “kay ang target sa iyang cloud band ni-a man sa  Mindanao,” she said.

The city saw its worst urban floods since the 2011 Typhoon Sendong devastation last week, making sections of major roads impassable and resulting in millions of pesos of losses.

Pagasa said the city may start feeling the effects of the low-pressure area that would bring more clouds and rains which the tail-end of a cold front has already been causing.

Mercado said Pagasa was closely monitoring the weather system hovering the Pacific Ocean.

“Posibling mokusog pa ang maong weather system kay tu-a pa man siya sa dagat. Duna pay iyang capacity nga mohakot ug daghang tubig  nga makapadugang sa kalapad sa iyang cloud band  formation,” said Mercado.

If it develops into a tropical cyclone, it would be called “Bising,” the second to hit the country this year.

Even without a low-pressure system, Mercado said, the country is expected to experience such weather systems until February because of the tail-end of a cold front.

Josefino Bascug, a technical consultant of the capitol for the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), said the country would likely experience bad weather up to February because of the tail-end of the cold front–which means Siberian cold winds blowing.

What happens is that the cold air mass pushes warm air upwards. As warm air goes up, it expands, loses its ability to hold moisture and bursts into rainclouds.

The weather would likely improve in March, after winter.

Fernando Vincent Dy, head of the PDRRMO, said the capitol has been monitoring the weather on a daily basis so it could would be able to warn people before disaster strikes.