‘Mangkhut’ intensifies, barrels towards PH

TYPHOON “Mangkhut” further intensified while heading towards the country and threatens North­ern Luzon, the State weather bu­reau said yesterday.

Based on the 12 p.m. weather forecast of the Philippine Atmo­spheric, Geophysical, and Astro­nomical Services Administration, Mangkhut was spotted 1,845 ki­lometers east of Southern Luzon, moving slower westward at 25 ki­lometers per hour.

Mangkhut now has maximum sustained winds of up to 170 kilo­meters per hour and gustiness of up to 210 kilometers per hour near the center.

PAGASA said that the typhoon may enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility this afternoon and will be locally named “Ompong” which will be the country’s 15th tropical cyclone for this year.

The State weather bureau re­iterated that Mangkhut is not yet a super typhoon. It has to have a maximum center wind strength of over of 220 kilometers per hour to be classified as a super typhoon.

PAGASA said they expect Mang­khut to reach sustained winds of 210 kilometers per hour with gust­iness of up to 260 kilometers per hour.

The typhoon is threatening Northern Luzon and may traverse the Cagayan-Batanes area on Sat­urday.

PAGASA senior weather spe­cialist Chris Perez said tropical cyclone warning signal No. 1 may be raised over Cagayan Valley as early as tonight.

Widespread moderate to heavy rains due to the typhoon is pos­sible by Friday over Northern Luzon especially over Cagayan, Isabela, Apayao, Kalinga, Abra, Ilocos Norte, and Batanes, PA­GASA said. (Alexandria Dennise San Juan)