Rainy season begins

BRING out your umbrellas, the wet season is  on.

The state weather bureau yesterday declared  the onset of the rainy season in the Philippines.

Since early this week, Cebu has been experiencing rainshowers.

However, the declaration of the official start of the wet season is based on a rainfall pattern of 25 millimeters in five successive days at a rate of at least 1 millimeter per day.

El Niño delayed the onset of the rainy season  this year, the weather agency earlier said.

In a press conference in Manila , Dr. Vicente Malano, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, said the  rainy season is expected to last  three months,  especially in the western part of the country.

Malano said Pagasa expects one to two tropical cyclones to hit the country in the rest of June,  three to five in July, two to four in August and September, two to three in October, one to two in November and up to one tropical cyclone in December.

The El Niño, which will be felt from October to the first quarter in 2016, may lessen the amount of rainfall but will not prevent strong typhoons which usually hit the country in the  last quarter of the year.

“We are not discounting the (formation of strong typhoons due to the El Niño). Typhoons are formed when there is a vacuum,” Malano said.

Pagasa said that El Niño will intensify during the second half of 2015.

With the rains,  the public has to stay alert for flashfloods and landslides in rural parts of Cebu.

“For now, the land throughout the island still isn’t saturated with that much water. But once it’s fully saturated, that’s the time floods will come,” said Baltazar Tribunalo Jr., head of the provincial disaster office. He said flood prone areas in the province include Toledo City, Balamban, and Tuburan, and areas where there are big rivers.

“If the rain covers watershed areas, then there will be possible flooding,” Tribunalo said.

Local disaster officers  from all over the province will meet on June 26 to discuss their plans  with experts from the University of San Carlos and Pagasa weather specialists.

Pagasa specialist Alice Canasa said the El Niño spell will still persist and intensify in the second half of the year until early 2016.

For now, she advised the public to carry umbrellas to avoid being soaked by the rain.

Drivers should also avoid speeding because the rains usually cause low visibility, Canasa said./INQUIRER with Correspondent Nestle L. Semilla and CTU Intern Marc Eric A. Cosep