Afternoon rains provide Metro residents respite from heat

Residents in Metro Manila and several environs got a respite from the summer heat as rains fell Sunday afternoon. The rains were reported in Manila, Quezon City, Taguig, and Makati in the National Capital Region (NCR), and Antipolo City and Angono in Rizal province. The rains lasted only for minutes, but it prompted several Facebook users to post status messages like "loving the rain" and "fo' shizzle my drizzle." The rains were accompanied by cool breeze. State weather forecasters said the downpours were not due to a cyclone but to a wind convergence affecting mainly Mindanao and Eastern Visayas.

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration's (Pagasa) had hinted at the possibility of isolated rain showers or thunderstorms. "Mindanao and Eastern Visayas will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms. The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to at times cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms," Pagasa said in its 5 a.m. bulletin. It added that moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast will prevail over the eastern sections of Luzon and Visayas and coming from the east and northeast over Eastern Mindanao and the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough. The country is experiencing up to 36-degree Celsius weather due to the El Niño phenomenon, which is wrecking havoc on many farmlands particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao. The government said damage to agriculture caused by the dry spells has gone up to P8.588 billion, even as the number of people affected continues to grow. In a March 19 report posted on its Web site, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said the damage was recorded in Bicol, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao City, South Cotabato and Maguindanao. The NDCC said the damage now involves 576,607.61 tons in production loss in 749,467.94 hectares in Luzon, Western and Central Visayas, Regions 9 to 12, and Cordillera. At least 301,135 farmers and their families had been affected because of the dry spells – 124,515 of them in Central Visayas and 117,844 in Southwestern Mindanao. - with Carmela Lapeña/KBK, GMANews.TV