Weak ‘habagat’ persists
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2019 09:10:40 +0000
The southwest monsoon or “habagat” will likely remain weak until the weekend, the State weather bureau said yesterday.
The relatively weak southwest monsoon will prevail over Southern Luzon and Western Visayas today and isolated rain showers and thunderstorms will be confined in these areas, said Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration weather specialist Ariel Rojas.
Rojas added that Metro Manila and the rest of the country will experience partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers from localized thunderstorms over the weekend.
Generally fair weather condition will prevail in the next few days but short duration heavy rains may persist especially in the afternoon or evening in most parts of the country, Rojas said.
However, he warned that sudden rains due to severe thunderstorm activity may cause flash floods or landslides in low-lying or mountainous areas.
As the southwest monsoon entered a period of lull almost a week ago, the Angat Dam in Bulacan has been adversely affected by the insufficiency of monsoon rains over the watershed area in Norzagaray.
As of yesterday morning, the water level at Angat Dam was 161.28 meters, down slightly by eight centimeters from last Thursday’s 161.36 meters.
Its current level is still low, although it is a little over the 160-meter critical level.
Angat Dam needs at least 336 millimeters of one-time rainfall to recover to its minimum operating level of 180 meters.
To reach its 210-meter normal high water level, about 1,267 millimeters of rainfall, equivalent to four to five tropical cyclones, will be needed. (Ellalyn Ruiz)