THE Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) yesterday placed 20 are under tropical cyclone Signal No. 1 after a low pressure area intensified into a tropical depression and was named “Amang,” the country’s first tropical cyclone this year.
PAGASA said Amang “may pass over or very close near Catanduanes” and may make landfall “over the Bicol Peninsula area.”
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the areas under Signal No. 1 were Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Quezon including Polillo Islands, Marinduque, Ticao Island, Burias Island, Rizal, Laguna, Aurora, Bulacan, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Northern Samar, Samar and Eastern Samar.
PAGASA said the low pressure area developed into a tropical depression at around 2 a.m. yesterday. The country has an average of 20 tropical cyclones a year, occurring mostly from July to October.
In a bulletin issued at 5 p.m. yesterday, PAGASA said Amang was some 130 km east northeast of Virac in Catanduanes or 250 km east of Daet, Camarines Sur as of 4 p.m yesterday.
Amang was moving westward at 30 kph and was packing maximum sustained winds of 55 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 70 kph.
PAGASA said Amang is forecast to track generally westward or west northwestward towards Bicol before turning west northwestward or northwestward today.
“While the current track forecast shows that the tropical depression will remain offshore over the waters east of Luzon for the next three days, the forecast confidence cone shows that a landfall scenario over the Bicol Peninsula area is not ruled out (may pass over or very close near Catanduanes), especially for the next nine hours,” PAGASA said.
PAGASA said Amang is forecast to remain a tropical depression until early Thursday or Friday when it may weaken into a low pressure area.
PAGASA said Bicol region and the provinces of Quezon, Marinduque, and Samar will experience rains with gusty winds while Romblon and the rest of Visayas will have cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms due to Amang.
Metro Manila and the rest of the country will have party cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms due to localized thunderstorms.
