Weather: LPA moves toward Palawan

A potential cyclone moved closer to Palawan Tuesday afternoon and threatened to bring flash floods and landslides to parts of Luzon and Visayas, even as state weather forecasters said they expect the weather to improve Thursday. The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the potential cyclone, a low-pressure area, was estimated at 180 km southeast of Coron, Palawan as of 2 p.m. "Luzon and Visayas will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms becoming cloudy with widespread rains over Central and Southern Luzon, eastern section of Northern Luzon and Western Visayas which may trigger flash floods and landslides," it said in its 5 p.m. bulletin. It added Mindanao will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms. Rain had fallen on parts of Metro Manila Tuesday, but PAGASA said it was not due to a cyclone. On the other hand, PAGASA said it expects the weather to start improving by Thursday afternoon, based on current model data. Meanwhile, moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast to east will prevail over Luzon and Visayas and the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the northeast to north with slight to moderate seas. - KBK, GMA News