Philippines Under Potential Cyclone Threat: Manila In Scanner

Philippines is under potential cyclone threat with low pressure area (LPA) approaching from the east, which may enter Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) in the days to come, according to a state weather forecast.

A PAGASA forecaster Alvin Pura as told to ABS-CBN News, "The LPA has a chance of intensifying into a tropical depression and will be locally named "Domeng."

He further added that the weather disturbance may make a landfall somewhere in Eastern Visayas and Eastern Mindanao between Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Also there is a possibility that the LPA may head towards Luzon.

Citing data from the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center, GMA resident meteorologist Nathaniel "Mang Tani" Cruz said that the LPA is still in the Pacific Ocean and near Micronesia.  

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that life in world's coastal cities is expected to get worse and reports further confirm, Philippines under potential cyclone threat in the days to come.

Temperatures are expected to rise a further 4C over the century. "Manila, Guangzhou, Lagos, Ho Chi Minh City, Kolkata, Shanghai, Mumbai, Tianjin, Rangoon, Bangkok and 100 others in high-risk tropical and subtropical regions are most vulnerable. They can expect to be swamped more often by tidal surges, battered by ever stronger typhoons and storms, and hit by deeper droughts," The Guardian reports.

In an interview with the state-run Philippine news agency, weather forecaster Manny Mendoza said that the LPA was spotted around 2,000 kilometers east of southern Mindanao. However, the Japan Meteorological Agency has classified the LPA as tropical depression. The potential cyclone threat in Philippines if experienced will be called "Domeng."

Dennis Posadas, Manila-based fellow of the Climate Institute in Washington and Philippine technology consultant told Guardian, "Manila is already several degrees warmer than surrounding areas in the day and is stifling at night because of the urban heat-island effect, which releases the heat stored in concrete, roads and buildings at night.  A 4C rise in temperature will make life unbearable and air conditioning an absolute necessity."

What we decipher from the IPCC report is that those areas that do not get flooded during rains might experience rains heavily and floods in the near future.

"Subsidence will be exacerbated, and high temperatures will become unbearable," he added.