‘Fine weather with small chance of rain on Sunday morning’

Security guard killed by  lightning at home in Guadalupe

THERE’S a “small chance” of rain on Sunday morning but otherwise the weather will be fine for the Ironman 70.3 races in Cebu.

That’s the advice of TV host  Kim Atienza,  weather anchor of ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol, who gives the pre-race weather report every year and is joining this weekend’s triathlon.

Expect rain  in the afternoon this weekend,  he said, something that won’t matter too much for  triathletes since the bike and race segments will be finished before 2 p.m.

“The weather condition on Sunday will be fine with a slight possibility of rain.   It will rain in the afternoon Saturday and Sunday  but there is no typhoon or low pressure area,” he said in Filipino.

A brief downpour past 3 p.m. yesterday triggered bumper-to-bumper traffic in Cebu City,  an example of the unpredictable weather.

The state-run weather station PAGASA said there would be isolated thunderstorms in the afternoons this weekend.

No gale warning was issued.

The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) affecting the Visayas and Mindanao will continue to bring heavy rains with thunder and lightning, said  Alfredo Quiblat, Mactan chief of Pagasa.

Rainfall in Cebu reached 131.7 millimeters in July, still below the normal average of 203.7 millimeters for the month.

A lightning bolt reportedly killed a  security guard and left parts of  barangay Busay in Cebu City  without electricity after yesterday afternoon’s sudden downpour.

Jimmy Canumay, 32, was found dead at home by his neighbors in barangay Guadalupe  about 3:40 p.m.

Burns on his head indicated he may  have been hit by lightning. Some of the clothes hung in the victim’s room were also  burned.  A hole was found in the wall.

Neighbors noticed smoke coming from Canumay’s house at the height of yesterday’s thunderstorm. They  believe a lightning bolt hit an outdoor radio antennae and burned  Canumay.

“He was fond of listening to news on the radio,” said PO2 Rufino Tablada Jr. of the security guard of the Pioneer Security Agency.

In Busay, an ipil-ipil tree fell on a major power distribution linens, cutting off electricity to sitio Plaza Housing and Plazaville and parts of sitio NHA and Lower Busay at dawn.

Busay barangay councilman Kevin Sanchez said the six-meter-tall tree fell on a  power cable of the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco).

“We had to cut the tree since it’s beside the highway and it’s  dangerous, especially for motorists,” Sanchez said. The area was cleared by 10 a.m. a Veco subcontractor went to fix the power lines.

Almost half of the sitio Baksan road in barangay Sapangdaku was closed to traffic after a landslide at about 1:40 p.m. on Thursday. But the debris was quickly cleared by  acity engineering team./with Mary Claire U. Catado