Tropical cyclone “Perla” (international name “Neoguri”) intensified into a severe tropical storm yesterday.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration estimated the location of Perla at 600 kilometers east of Basco, Batanes before noon yesterday, packing maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 115 kph, and moving west-northwest at 15 kph.
Perla will be outside the country’s area of responsibility late today or early tomorrow, PAGASA weather specialist Meno Mendoza said.
The tropical cyclone is still not expected to directly affect the country. However, residents and disaster managers in extreme Northern Luzon were still advised to continue monitoring for official weather updates.
Mendoza said the northeasterly surface wind flow remains the prevailing weather system that may bring occasional gusts over extreme Northern Luzon until early next week.
Sea travel remains risky, especially for small sea vessels, over the seaboards of Northern Luzon due to potentially rough sea conditions associated with the strong northeasterly surface wind flow.
Metro Manila and the rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers due to localized thunderstorms.
PAGASA warned that the occurrence of severe thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening could possibly trigger flash floods in low-lying areas or landslides in mountainous regions.
Tomorrow until Wednesday, the State weather bureau said the whole country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated thunderstorms. (Ellalyn V. Ruiz)
