‘Wutip’ to enter PAR Thursday or early Friday — PAGASA

By Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz

A slow-moving tropical cyclone “Wutip” is expected to enter the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) Thursday evening or early Friday, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

Around Thursday noon, PAGASA estimated the location of Wutip at 1,540 kilometers (km) east of Northern Luzon or still outside the PAR.

Should it maintain its current speed and direction of 20 kilometers per hour (kph) west-northwest, Wutip will be inside the country’s vicinity around Thursday evening or early Friday and will be named “Betty.”

PAGASA said Wutip has weakened and been downgraded to tropical storm category. As of Thursday noon, Wutip has maximum sustained winds of 80 kph and gustiness of up to 95 kph.

It is expected to further weaken in the next few days due to the intrusion of cold and dry air coming from the northeast monsoon or amihan.

The weather bureau also said the cyclone is not expected to make landfall and may only stay off the Pacific coast.

By Friday morning, Wutip will likely be downgraded to tropical depression and is estimated at 1,345 km east of Aparri, Cagayan.

By Saturday morning, Wutip may become a low pressure area and expected at 1,285 km east of Aparri.

PAGASA said the northeast monsoon or amihan remains the prevailing weather system across the whole country over the weekend.

Aurora, Quezon, Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, Southern Leyte, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, and Dinagat Islands will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated light rains.

Meanwhile, Metro Manila and the rest of the country will have partly cloudy skies.