PAGASA issued an early announcement that the country shall have a wet Christmas because of the Northeast monsoon and La Niña.
Wet Christmas for the Philippines!
A couple of days away from the “ber” months, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), has informed the public of the possibility of a rainy Christmas season for the country.
According to the state weather agency, there is a great possibility that the rainy weather will be worsened by La Niña which is foreseen to seep in on September.
La Niña will enjoin the Northeast monsoon (Hangin Amihan) which will bring the cool breeze along with the yuletide spirit.
La Niña is the positive phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation and is associated with cooler than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Ocean. However, each country and island nation has a different threshold for what constitutes an occurence of La Niña.
PAGASA added that La Niña usually lasts for six months and therefore Filipinos can expect a rainy, wet Christmas.
The last time that the Philippines has experienced La Niña was in 2011 and 2012 where around 1,000 persons have died because of Bagyo Sendong.
Meanwhile, PAGASA has advised that the entire archipelago, especially in Metro Manila, will continue to experience monsoon rains which may trigger flashfloods and landslides. Cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms until Monday afternoon or as further weather bulletins would advise.
Other parts of Luzon and the rest of Visayas will also experience weather disturbances while partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms will affect Mindanao throughout the day.
The coastal waters within the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will be in slight to moderate condition.
This is despite Bagyo Dindo (with an international name of Lionrock) has already left the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on Saturday afternoon.