Weather Today – November 21, 2014 | Thunderstorms possible today

Two weather systems prevail over the country today–the tail-end of a cold front and the northeast monsoon.

Rains are expected over Western and Central Visayas, and the provinces of Aurora, Quezon, Camarines, Albay, Catanduanes and Sorsogon due to the tail-end of a cold front. This weather system is the front boundary of two air masses, which causes precipitation.

On the other hand, the northeast monsoon or amihan continues to bring lower temperatures and isolated light rains in the regions of Cagayan Valley, Cordillera and Ilocos. The rest of the country, including Metro Manila, will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms today.

PAGASA weather forecaster Alvin Pura says that so far, there is no monitored weather disturbance inside or outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility.

Meanwhile, rough to very rough sea condition is expected over the northern seaboards of Northern Luzon due to the surge of the amihan. Sea travel along these seaboards is risky as wave height could reach up to 4.5 meters.

TODAY IN HISTORY: THE CLAVERIA DECREE

Since 1850, most Filipino families started using new surnames based on the Claveria list.

On November 21, 1849, Governor General Narciso Claveria began the process of creating a civil registry of the entire population by issuing a decree standardizing records of Filipino names and surnames.

He released the Catálogo Alfabético de Apellidos or the Alphabetical Catalogue of Surnames, which contained 60,662 Spanish and indigenous surnames.

Before the Spanish occupied the Philippines, most Filipinos had just one name. But when people started to convert to Christianity, most took two or three names and changed them whenever they wanted.

This practice created confusion among the Spanish bureaucrats, making tax collection a nightmare. With the Claveria decree, this task, along with law enforcement and setting up church records, became systemized.