MANILA – The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has declared the start of the rainy season in the country on Friday.
In a press briefing, PAGASA senior weather specialist Chris Perez said the start of the rainy season has been determined based on their requirement of five days of rain generating a total amount of at least 25 millimeters (mm) of rainfall.
“Nagsimula na po ang panahon ng tag-ulan dito sa ating bansa. Nasatisfy na po ‘yung criteria ng rainfall sa mga Type 1 climate station kung kaya’t opisyal nang dineklara ng PAGASA [na] simula na ng tag-ulan sa ating bansa,” Perez said.
PAGASA administrator Vicente Malano, for his part, said the widespread rainfall recorded in most PAGASA stations during the past few days enough for the declaration.
“The Western part of the country will continue to experience scattered to widespread rain showers and thunderstorms in the coming days,” Malano said. “However, such rain events may be followed by dry periods – also known as a monsoon break.”
The country is currently dealing with the effect tropical storm “Domeng,” which is not expected to make a landfall in the country but enhancing the southwest monsoon.
The Philippines has so far had four tropical cyclones this year, namely “Agaton,” “Basyang,” “Caloy,” and “Domeng.” The country is being visited by an average of 20 tropical cyclones a year./PN
