Weather Today – February 1, 2017 | LPA spotted outside the PAR

The Philippines remains storm-free on the first day of February though rains may prevail due to the Northeast Monsoon, locally known as Hanging Amihan. Amihan is cold and dry air coming from Mainland China or Siberia. It usually begins to affect the country during the ber months and peaks in January until the early part of February.

Some parts of Luzon may have a gloomy start as cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms will be experienced in Metro Manila and the provinces of Isabela, Aurora, Rizal and Quezon. Meanwhile, light rains may also affect the regions of Cordillera, Ilocos, the rest of Cagayan Valley and the rest of Central Luzon. The remaining parts of the country will have generally fair weather condition apart from isolated rain showers or thunderstorms in the latter part of the day.

Along with the rains, Amihan also brings cooler weather mostly during night time or early morning. Here’s a quick recap of the lowest temperatures recorded in the previous month.

Gale warning is up inthe northern seaboard of Northern Luzon. These include Batanes, Calayan, Babuyan, Cagayan and Ilocos Norte. Rough to very rough sea conditions are expected with wave height ranging from 3.4 to 4.5 meters. Fishing boats and other small seacraft are advised not to venture out while larger sea vessels are alerted against big waves.

As another month begins, another Low Pressure Area (LPA) was spotted outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). The weather disturbance was last located at 1, 700 kilometers east-southeast of Mindanao. According to an interview with PAGASA Weather Forecaster Gener Quitlong, the LPA is expected to enter our premises tomorrow, and may also develop into a tropical cyclone. If it develops into a tropical depression after entering the PAR, it will be named as “Bising”, the first cyclone for February 2017.

Quitlong also discussed that an average of 0-1 tropical cyclone usually develops within the PAR during the month of February. Based on the climatological record of the weather bureau, a cyclone normally re-curves away from the landmass. Since the current LPA is still outside the PAR, PAGASA is yet to give its definite track. The public is advised to monitor updates and further development.

In case you missed it, here’s our full interview with PAGASA earlier today: https://youtu.be/MxnwkokNsXo