CHRISTMAS CHILL IS HERE -- PAGASA
[PHOTO - THE PAGASA (AT DOST) WEBPAGE LOGO]
MANILA, DECEMBER 7, 2010 (BULLETIN) By ELLALYN B. DE VERA — Wear thicker clothes and sweaters for the tail-end of a cold front affecting Northern Luzon is expected to bring colder weather, coupled with cloudy skies and rains in the coming days, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said on Saturday.
The cold front is the boundary along a cold and warm air mass, with the cold air being the dominant system that is pushing out a warm air.
Cloudy skies brought about by a cold front are often coupled with thunderstorms rainshowers.
Meanwhile, the intertropical convergence zone will continue to adversely affect Mindanao bringing mostly cloudy with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms becoming cloudy with widespread rains over Central Luzon and the Bicol Region.
PAGASA warned the public that the rains may trigger flashfloods and landslides.
It said that moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast will prevail over the whole country and the coastal waters will be moderate to rough.
Strong to gale force winds, associated with the surge of northeasterly winds, locally called "hanging amihan" will also prevail.
The seaboards of Northern Luzon will be rough to very high, while the seaboards of Central and Southern Luzon will be rough to very rough.
PAGASA warned fishing boats and other small seacraft not to venture out into the sea, while larger sea vessels are alerted against big waves.
Longer nights The annual winter solstice is drawing nigh, which marks the longest nighttime and shortest daytime in the country on December 22.
PAGASA said nights get longer in the Philippines due to winter solstice, an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun "lying at its farthest point" south of the equator.
For some, this signals the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Philippines is located in the Northern Hemisphere, although the country technically does not have winter, it experiences colder than usual weather.
"The sun will reach the winter solstice on December 22 at 7:38 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time)," PAGASA officer-in-charge Dr. Nathaniel Servando said.
"This marks the time when the Sun lies at its farthest point south of the equator. The Philippine nights will be longer than daytime. Earth has now completed another annual circuit around the Sun," he added.
According to the Web, a solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year—the summer and winter solstices.
It occurs when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its extreme northernmost or southernmost position.
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