‘Onyok’ weakens; Expect good weather Christmas Day
Tropical depression Onyok has weakened and slowed down, but continued to disrupt air and sea travel in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Bad weather caused a Cebu Pacific plane bound for Surigao City to return to Mactan, cancelled six other flights and grounded at least seven vessels in Cebu City ports.
Oscar Tabada, Pagasa Visayas chief, said Cebu will have sunny skies with occasional rains from Sunday until Christmas Day, which falls on a full moon.
Tabada said a full moon on December 25 is a rare occasion.
The next time this coincidence happens would be in the year 2030.
“We will have very good weather on Christmas day,” Tabada assured.
The forecast for Cebu today is overcast skies with light to moderate rains and at times heavy rain in southern Cebu. Sunny weather is expected Sunday to Monday with light rain from Tuesday to Thursday, he said.
Moderate rains fell yesterday in Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas.
Gemma Imbang of the MCIA Airport Operations Control Center said Flight DG 6901 left the Mactan Airport at 2:10 pm for Surigao City.
However, the plane could not land in Surigao because of bad weather and had to return to Mactan at 3:33 p.m.
The flight was later cancelled, said Imbang.
Cebu Pacific also cancelled six outgoing and incoming flights at MCIA on Friday.
The flights affected trips to Surigao, Tandag in Surigao del Sur, and Siargao.
Flights for Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City and Zamboanga City remained normal despite the bad weather because these routes use the bigger Airbuses.
At least seven vessels for Mindanao and Eastern Visayas were grounded in Cebu City ports because of the tropical depression and the gale warning raised over Eastern Visayas.
Over 400 passengers were affected, but only 59 were stranded as most of the passengers decided to get a refund and went home, according to Cebu Coast Guard Station commander Agapito Bibat.
Affected vessels for Mindanao were MV Filipinas Dumaguete for Surigao City, MV Filipinas Iligan for Ozamis City and Iligan City, MV Filipinas Butuan for Nasipit in Agusan del Norte, MV Trans Asia 10 for Cagayan de Oro City and MV Trans Asia 8 for Iligan City.
These areas were still under storm signal number 1 based on the 5 p.m. weather bulletin from Pagasa.
A gale warning was issued on Friday over the eastern seaboard of Southern Luzon and Eastern Visayas.
Small vessels below 250 gross tonnage were barred from sailing. This affected MV Weesam Express 7 for Ormoc City and passenger motorbanca CA Christopher from Pulangbato Wharf in Bogo City to Ormoc City.
Tabada said the gale warning was more of a public warning against a possible surge of the northeast monsoon or amihan.
Based on the 5 p.m. weather bulletin, Onyok slowed down and slightly weakened with maximum sustained winds of 45 kph while approaching Davao Oriental.
Signal number 1 was hoisted last night over Surigao del Sur including Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte, Dinagat Province, Misamis Oriental, Camiguin, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley, Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Davao del Sur, Maguindanao and North Cotabato.
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