MANILA - The drought-causing El Nino weather pattern has receded, but its flip side, La Nina, might return and affect the Philippines, a senior meteorologist said on Wednesday.
"El Nino is gone as shown by the return to neutral conditions in the Pacific Ocean," Nathaniel Cruz, head of the weather branch of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, told Reuters by phone.
Cruz, however, said his office was monitoring the possible development of the rain-laden La Nina weather pattern in the next two to three months as suggested by other international meteorological centres.
Last week, the US Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said La Nina may form in the equatorial Pacific in the next two to three months.
"It is not 100 percent definite that La Nina will come in after El Nino," Cruz said, adding the Philippines was in the midst of its summer which runs from March to early May.
About 20 typhoons hit the Philippine archipelago each year, mostly during the rainy season that usually starts in late May and normally lasts until September.
Cruz said Mindanao island in southern Philippines experienced below-normal rain in November and December due to what meteorologists described as a mild El Nino.
On the other hand, wide areas in Luzon and Visayas islands in the northern and central part of the Philippine archipelago were battered by a series of strong typhoons since September.
Cruz said the El Nino weather pattern that affected the Philippines late last year followed the La Nina anomaly that started in November 2005 and lasted until early 2006.
La Nina, which is associated with increased rainfall, causes storms and flooding in many parts of Asia. It was felt in the Philippines from December 2005 till March 2006.
During that time, most parts of the Philippines experienced above average rainfall, local meteorologists have said.
Mudslides triggered by heavy rains entombed a community of 1,800 in Guinsaugon on Southern Leyte province, about 675 km (420 miles) southeast of Manila, in February 2006.
Story by Dolly Aglay
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
