Easterly wind to bring Cebu rain until Monday
CEBU, Philippines - Metro Cebu will have cloudy and rainy weather for the next three days due to different weather systems that interrupted the dry season.
This is the prediction of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration-Mactan following the occurrence of rain the past few days despite “summer” being already here.
Engineer Alfredo Quiblat Jr. of PAGASA said that Cebu province would continue to experience intermittent rainfall today due to easterly wind, or the wind flowing from the east that may bring cloudiness over the eastern part of the country.
He said that when the easterly wind interacts with the country’s landmass, evaporation occurs, resulting to the formation of rain clouds, which explains the light to moderate rain yesterday and the previous days.
The cloudy and rainy weather, Quiblat said, is expected to persist until Monday, due to a weak low pressure area spotted at the Pacific Ocean and the return of the north-easterly wind.
“From Saturday to Monday, there will be cloudy skies and light to moderate rains and at times heavy rains due to these weather systems,” he said.
As of yesterday afternoon, the weak LPA was still outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility or approximately 1,700 kilometers southeast of Mindanao, and is expected to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility this evening or tomorrow.
Quiblat, though, said they expect the LPA to dissipate. He advised the public to make use of the rainy days to store rainwater, reminding that they should optimize daily water consumption as more dry days are expected in the next few months.
As to the whole month of April, he said it would experience “near normal” rainfall condition, noting that this month typically has the least number of rainy days.
He added that based on their forecast for July and August, these months are expected to have “below normal” rainfall condition despite the expected onset of the rainy season.
He also said that an international-based climate analysis showed that the chances for El Niño to occur in the second half of the year have increased.
On the other hand, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District announced that output from the Buhisan Dam is now increasing due to the rains since Monday.
"Rains last Monday brought production up by 1,900 cubic meter per day in Buhisan Dam," said Charmaine Rodriguez-Kara, MCWD spokesperson. She said this means that from 2,000 cubic meters, it is now around 4,000 cubic meters per day.
Despite this, however, she still encouraged consumers to conserve water especially that summer season is just around the corner.
Meanwhile, power supply in the Visayas grid remains normal despite the onset of the summer months.
"Hopefully this trend continues for the entire summer," said Department of Energy-7 Director Antonio Labios.
Engineer Rey Maleza, DOE-7 supervisor of the energy industry management division, said that so far, power reserve in Cebu is more than enough.
“More than enough pa ang reserve during evening peak, provided no major power plant will conk out," he said.
Betty Martinez, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines-Visayas spokesperson, said that power supply in the grid (which caters to Cebu, Negros and Panay) remains normal.
In Talisay City, Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office Head Alvin Santillana said Tapul, Maghaway, Manipis and other remote barangays in the city are the focus of efforts to help ease the difficulties of their constituents due to the summer heat.
He said they anticipated that there would be inadequate supply of water because of the dry season, and prepared the city’s tanker to bring water to the mountain barangays and to homes in elevated areas.
So far, he said, there are no request yet for the supply of potable water. Water supply, though, is already slowly decreasing, which he personally observed in his home in Barangay San Roque.
“We have the Jaclupan Dam, which is supplying water sa MCWD. I hope i-priority pud nila ang Talisay,” he added. — May B. Miasco, Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon, Iris Mariani B. Algabre (FREEMAN)
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