InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - The fourth storm to visit the country this year will be the first to hit land in extreme northern Luzon, the state weather bureau said.
Based on the projection of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), tropical storm "Dindo" will pass through Batanes and the Calayan group of islands later in the afternoon or early evening. A storm makes its landfall when its center, or in the case of typhoons, the "eye," hovers directly below land.
The first two storms that visited the country, Ambo and the stronger typhoon Butchoy, did not make landfall but enhanced the southwest monsoon or habagat, which brought rains in the country. Meanwhile, storm Carina made landfall in Taiwan, which is still under the Philippine Area of Responsibility.
Although it has yet to make landfall, Dindo's rainbands is already bringing moderate to heavy rains in northern Luzon. As of 9 a.m., storm signal warnings have been raised throughout the island and prompted local officials to cancel classes. Rains in Metro Manila and other parts of western Philippines are due to the enhanced Habagat that Dindo pulled on its northwest path out of the country.
Aside from packing winds of up to 75 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 90 kph, Dindo is huge and has a 400 kilometer radius that could dump between 15-25 millimeters of rains.
Dindo is expected to remain in the country until Friday or early Saturday if it does not change paths or maintains its speed at 19 kph. Pagasa had earlier said that the country will be visited by some 30 storms this year, the strongest of which usually come on September to October.
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