Bring umbrellas, Pagasa tells voters

Government weather forecasters yesterday advised Filipino voters trooping to the polling precincts today for the synchronized barangay and SK elections, to bring their umbrellas as scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms are expected to prevail over the country.

Weather forecaster Bobby Rivera, of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), said the active low pressure area over northern Catanduanes will bring rains over southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The rest of Luzon will be partly cloudy to at times cloudy with isolated rainshowers, he added.

An LPA is commonly associated with bad weather. A tropical cyclone, if on the sea, can be formed in such condition.

But Rivera said the active low pressure area was unlikely to develop into a storm as it already landed over Bicol area.

He said gradually improving weather conditions are expected to prevail in the country particularly in Bicol, which has received much rain in the past days.

As of 2 a.m. yesterday, the ALPA was estimated based on satellite and surface data at 40 kilometers north of Catanduanes or 150 kms east of Camarines Norte, which is embedded along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

Tropical depression “Juaning,” the recent weather disturbance that entered the country this year, left the Philippine area of responsibility on Saturday.

Juaning, the second tropical cyclone for this month and the 10th this year, did not affect any part of the country.