The view from the skywalk in Osmeña Boulevard, showing cloudy skies hovering over uptown Cebu City as heavy rainfall poured on February 6, 2020. | CDN Digital Photo by Gerard Vincent Francisco
CEBU CITY, Philippines – It’s still the sixth day of February but Metro Cebu has already exceeded its average rainfall rate for this month.
Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration in Mactan (Pagasa-Mactan) recorded 83.6 millimeters of rain since the start of February.
Pagasa-Mactan said Metro Cebu has an average rate of 80 millimeters for this month.
Jomar Eclarino, the weather specialist of Pagasa-Mactan, said their models attributed the excess to the intermittent heavy rains experienced in several parts of Metro Cebu today, Thursday (February 6).
“We started experiencing light rains as early as 1 a.m. today. By 7 a.m., we recorded heavy rainfall which intermittently lasted until 5 p.m. With that, we recorded a total of 83.6 millimeters of rain,” Eclarino said.
“This means that the rains we experienced within a span of 24 hours have exceeded this month’s average rainfall rate,” he added.
But Eclarino said the weather will start improving tomorrow, Friday (February 7), with a cloudy sky accompanied by isolated rain showers. He also said Cebuanos can expect fairer weather this weekend.
The damp weather in Metro Cebu experienced today was due to the combined forces of two weather systems – a low-pressure area (LPA) hovering over the Visayas and Mindanao regions and the tail end of a cold front.
Pagasa issued an Orange Rainfall Alert past 10 a.m. today in the Visayas, including Cebu, indicating the possibility of landslide and flash flood.
An hour later, or past 11 a.m., it was raised to Red Rainfall Alert, the highest of the color-coded warning, which means flooding and landslides are expected due to heavy rainfall.
The state’s weather bureau also said that chances of a major weather disturbance to enter the country range from 0 to 1. /rcg