Weather: PAGASA monitors potential cyclone off Mindanao

State weather forecasters are now tracking a potential cyclone sighted off Mindanao, even as rains loom over Metro Manila on Monday, when President Benigno Aquino III delivers his State of the Nation Address (SONA). The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the potential cyclone, a low-pressure area (LPA), was estimated at 640 km east-northeast of Surigao City as of 2 a.m. “We expect mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms especially in the afternoon and evening. This weather situation is also to be expected in Metro Manila," PAGASA forecaster Manny Mendoza said in an interview on dzBB radio. He did not comment on the chances of the LPA becoming a cyclone. Should the LPA intensify into a cyclone while in Philippine territory, it will be codenamed “Juaning." PAGASA’s 5 a.m. bulletin indicated the LPA is embedded along the Intertropical Convergence Zone affecting Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Meanwhile, PAGASA said flash floods and landslides loom over parts of Eastern Visayas and Palawan. “Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms becoming cloudy with widespread rains over Eastern Visayas and Palawan which may trigger flashfloods and landslides," it said. It said the rest of the country will have partly cloudy to at times cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or evening. — LBG, GMA News