Hottest day: Metro Manila sizzles at 36.5ºC

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila residents experienced scorching heat yesterday as the temperature hit 36.5 degrees Celsius, the hottest recorded in the area so far this year, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said.

The maximum temperature was recorded at the PAGASA Science Garden in Quezon City at 3:45 p.m.

The agency said the heat index — the temperature as felt by the human body — reached 41 degrees Celsius in the capital.

Earlier, PAGASA’s climate monitoring and prediction section chief Ana Liza Solis warned the public of hotter days this month.

She said in Metro Manila, the maximum temperature could reach as high as 38.2 degrees Celsius; 41 degrees Celsius in Northern Luzon; 38 degrees Celsius in the lowlands of the Visayas, and 38.8 degrees Celsius in the lowlands of Mindanao.

The country’s hottest temperature was recorded in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan on May 11, 1969 at 42.2 degrees Celsius, according to PAGASA.

The other warmest temperatures recorded in the country were as follows: 38.5 degrees Celsius in Quezon City on May 14, 1987; 38.6 degrees Celsius in Port Area, Manila on May 17, 1915; 38.1 degrees Celsius in Parañaque on May 18, 1969; and 38.5 in Cavite on May 16, 1987.

Meanwhile, the low-pressure area off Mindanao dissipated yesterday.

However, PAGASA said the intertropical convergence zone would continue to bring cloudy skies with scattered light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms over western and central Visayas, Zamboanga peninsula, northern Mindanao and Palawan.