‘Urduja’ is out; here comes ‘Vinta’
TROPICAL depression "Urduja" weakened into a low-pressure area (LPA) yesterday afternoon while it was over Surigao City but the weather bureau said a typhoon is expected to enter the country this weekend.
The typhoon, "Nida," will be named "Vinta" when it enters the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR), said Pagasa administrator Prisco Nilo.
"Nida is already a typhoon and it may still intensify as it approaches PAR since it is still over the sea," said Nilo.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, Urduja was 350 km east of Surigao City.
The weather bureau lowered all public storm signals.
It said most parts of Luzon will continue to experience rains due to the northeast monsoon affecting Northern and Eastern Luzon. Palawan, the Visayas and Mindanao will experience cloudy skies with scattered to widespread rains with thunderstorms today, while the rest of Luzon including Metro Manila will be partly cloudy with isolated rains.
Pagasa and a power grid operator, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, recently entered an agreement on a real-time weather information sharing through the Storm Tracking Alert and Relay System (STARS).
Under the agreement, Pagasa will assist the NGCP in its efforts to prepare for weather-related contingency activities.
Pagasa will provide meteorological, hydrological, climatological, astronomical and other scientific information and services like tropical cyclone update, hourly weather data and weather satellite images from various sources, and numerical weather prediction model outputs every eight-hour period.
NGCP, on the other hand, will provide back-up communication link to the Pagasa data center to transmit real-time hydro-meteorological data from flood prone-areas, particularly in the Magat River Basin and Bicol areas.
This involves enabling NGCP’s subscription to the weather and hydrometeorological data to support NGCP’s Integrated Typhoon Action Plan.
NGCP president Walter Brown said the partnership would enhance contingency measures for both companies.
Brown said the NGCP, which is the sole operator of the electric power grid in the country, continually institutes contingency measures to address various emergencies such as widespread power interruptions caused by typhoons, lightning and other inclement weather conditions that affect the delivery of electricity to power customers.
"Sharing of real-time data and information for disaster mitigation offers a high return on investment and this is the direction which PAGASA has committed in response to the thrust of the World Meteorological Organization, for which the Philippines is a member state," said Nilo. – Angela Lopez de Leon
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