Potential super typhoon to enter PAR next week

MANILA — A tropical storm southeast of Guam may enter the Philippine area of responsibility as a super typhoon on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

At 8 a.m. Friday, Tropical Storm Champi was located more than 3,100 kilometers east of Visayas, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Champi was contributed by Laos and means red jasmine flower in the Lao language.

It has maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour with gustiness up to 105 kph and is moving westward at 20 kph.

Once inside the PAR, it will be assigned the local name Rosal. It would be the first storm in the country this October and the 18th overall this year.

The potential super typhoon is less likely to make landfall over any part of the country. Current projections indicate it will move northwestward over the Philippine Sea toward Ryukyu Islands or Taiwan before the end of next week.

However, the trough or extension of the tropical cyclone may affect the eastern sections of Luzon and Visayas.

The public is advised to continuously monitor updates on this weather disturbance, as its forecast tracks and intensity will still change.

Ahead of the storm’s PAR entry, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the humid Easterlies will bring rains over parts of central and southern Philippines this weekend.

The ITCZ, where winds from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres meet, will bring scattered rains over Mindanao, Visayas, MIMAROPA, Bicol Region, and Quezon on Friday and Saturday.

The Easterlies will bring rains over these areas, except for Mindanao, on Sunday.

The country remains in a transition period toward the Northeast Monsoon or Amihan season.

The weather bureau forecasts the Amihan season to start between the last week of October and the first week of November.

A drier and warmer Amihan season may be experienced due to the very strong El Niño, forecast to peak in December, according to state climatologists.

They added that fewer but more intense tropical cyclones are also expected inside the PAR during the last quarter of the year.