Weather satellite from Pagasa
MANILA, Philippines — The state weather bureau said it wass monitoring a low-pressure area (LPA), which formed off Batanes and inside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), early morning of Friday.
The LPA’s location as of the last monitoring of Pagasa was at 745 kilometers east-southeast of Itbayat, Batanes, said Benison Estareja, weather specialist of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
Estareja noted, speaking partly in Filipino, that “Based on our track, the said weather disturbance will move northwest over Taiwan and we are not ruling out that it will become a tropical depression.”
“We are expecting this to intensify into a tropical depression over this weekend,” he added.
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This LPA will be named Igme once it develops into the ninth tropical cyclone to disturb the country this year.
For now, however, the southwest monsoon, locally termed habagat, will continue to bring cloudy skies with rain in many parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila, Zambales, Bataan, Ilocos Region, and Samar Island, and Visayas.
Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms are also anticipated to occur in the rest of Visayas and Mindanao on Friday due to the southwest monsoon.
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Pagasa also said it sees moderate to rough seas with 2.5 to 3.4 meters of waves in several seaboards.
It raised gale warnings in the western seaboard of Luzon (Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro) and Palawan, including Kalayaan Islands, for Friday.
“Mariners of small seacrafts (including all motor bancas of any type or tonnage) are advised to take precautionary measures when venturing out to sea and, if possible, avoid navigating in these conditions,” Pagasa’s 5 a.m. weather update states.
“Vessel masters, boat captains, ship owners/operators, and coast guard units concerned are advised to take appropriate measures to ensure safety of life at sea.”