‘La Niña’ bringing monsoon rains

If the prevailing weather pattern seems weird, it’s not your set, folks.

Even government meteorologists agree there exists an unusual weather situation in the Philippines, marked by unseasonal monsoon rains and the onset of a phenomenon known as "La Niña."

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), the country was affected last month by the northeast monsoon, the tailend of a cold front, an easterly wave and active low-pressure area that developed into a tropical depression — "Agaton" — which brought days of rains and caused flooding over some areas of Central and Eastern Luzon.

This month, Pagasa weathermen said, the northeast monsoon, the tailend of a cold front and easterly wave will likely influence the weather although there is a slim chance of a tropical cyclone occurring in the Philippine area of responsibility.

"This (prevailing weather system) is unusual in a sense that if this is the normal northeast monsoon, we should have a dry weather pattern," Nathaniel Cruz, chief of Pagasa’s weather branch told The STAR.

This is caused by the convergence of the easterly and northeasterly winds and the condition creates more rainfall in the affected areas, Cruz explained.

"The bigger picture is this: There is a developing la niña condition in the tropical Pacific," the Pagasa-DOST weather branch chief said.

According to him, la niña’s signature is a "cooler than normal sea surface temperature in the Eastern Pacific covering the coasts of Peru and warmer than normal SST over the Western Pacific including the Philippines.

"The persistent warmer than normal sea surface temperature around the Philippines may bring more rains in many parts of the country," he said, adding the brewing la n iña condition may last up to the end of the first quarter 2006 when the see surface temperature begins to normalize.

Amid the la niña and the puzzling climate within the region — above normal rainfall condition in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam while China, Japan and Russia are experiencing colder than normal winter — what is important is for people to be ready and prepared for possible disastrous effects of these unpredictable weather patterns, Cruz said.