The threats of a brewing cyclone over Visayas and Mindanao remains due to higher possibility of intensifying into a tropical depression before its landfall over Caraga Region between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) estimated the location of the low pressure area (LPA) at 385 kilometers east-southeast of Surigao City in Surigao del Norte around mid-Monday.
PAGASA weather forecaster Samuel Duran said the LPA has a higher chance of developing into a tropical depression before its landfall.
Once it becomes a cyclone, it will be given a local name of “Agaton,” the first cyclone of 2018.
Duran warned residents of Bicol Region, Visayas and Mindanao, particularly Eastern Visayas, Caraga, and Davao regions of moderate to heavy rains and thunderstorms due to the approaching weather disturbance.
He added that flash floods or landslides due to scattered moderate to occasionally heavy rains are possible over these areas.
Should the weather system develop into a tropical depression, PAGASA said maritime operations along the eastern seaboard of Mindanao, particularly Surigao, Davao Oriental, Dinagat Islands and Siargao, and eastern seaboard of Leyte and Southern Leyte will likely be disrupted.
It said tropical cyclone warning Signal No. 1 will be raised once the LPA intensifies into a depression. (Ellalyn de Vera-Ruiz)
