Storm-free Philippines until New Year - PAGASA

MANILA, Philippines - The country will be spared from tropical cyclones during the remaining days of the year, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said Friday.

Weather forecaster Glaiza Escullar told state-run Philippine News Agency that they are not expecting any cyclone to affect the country until December 31.

The weather bureau had projected that one or two tropical cylones may enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) this month.

But Escullar said no weather disturbance near the PAR has been seen as most parts of the country will continue to experience relatively good weather for the next three to five days.

In its advisory, PAGASA said the tail-end of a cold front will bring rains over the Bicol region while the Northeast Monsoon (Amihan) will still affect Northern Luzon.

The Bicol Region, Mimaropa and Western Visayas will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms while the regions of Cagayan Valley, Ilocos and Cordillera will experience cloudy skies with light rains.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country will remain to have partly cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast will prevail over Northern and Central Luzon and coming from the east and northeast over Southern Luzon.

The coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough.

Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the east to northeast with slight to moderate seas.

The weather bureau said strong to gale force winds associated with the northeast monsoon may affect the seaboards of Northern and Central Luzon and the western seaboard of Southern Luzon.

"Fishing boats and other small seacrafts are advised not to venture out into the sea while larger sea vessels are alerted against big waves," it said.