Temperatures in Subic, Zambales reached 39.2 degrees Celsius on Sunday, the warmest so far this year, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said.
Pagasa weather observer Leni Ruiz said temperatures across the country will rise even more as the state weather bureau declared the start of the dry season last week with the end of the “Amihan” (northeastern) season that is characterized by cool winds.
The mercury already rose to 38 degrees Celsius in Subic last Saturday, while the temperature in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan reached 38.4 degrees on Sunday, Pagasa records showed.
“We saw that the amihan will no longer return and we will declare the start of summer,” Pagasa meteorologist Aldczar Aurelio previously told radio dzMM.
The state weather bureau forecast the northeasterly winds to stop prevailing in Luzon last week, although it still brought cloudy skies and scattered rain showers in the regions of Cagayan Valley, Cordillera, Bicol, Ilocos, and Central Luzon.
Last year, Pagasa announced the start of summer on April 5. It made the same announcement in March from 2012 to 2016.
The bureau said the amihan’s effect may have been prolonged this year by a “weak” La Niña condition, characterized by the unusually cool ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.
Once summer sets in, Aurelio said the dominant weather systems will be the easterlies or warm winds from the Pacific, along with the ridges of high pressure areas.
According to the website weatherspark.com, the dry season in Subic is windy and partly cloudy and is “hot and oppressive” year-round.
Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 73°F to 93°F (22.8 to 33.8 Celsius) and is rarely below 69°F (20 Celsius) or above 98°F (36.7 Celsius), it added.