MMMary Ann L.

Baricar

Climate of the
Philippines

Climate of the Philippines

The

Climate of the Philippines is

either tropical rainforest, tropical
savanna or tropical monsoon, or
humid subtropical (in higheraltitude areas) characterized by
relatively
high
temperature,
oppressive humidity and plenty of
rainfall. There are two seasons in the
country, the wet season and the dry
season, based upon the amount of
rainfall. This is dependent as well on

Climate of the Philippines

Weather in the Philippines is
monitored and managed by
the Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical
Services Administration (known
locally by its acronym,
PAGASA).

Climate of the Philippines

RAINFALL
The summermonsoonbrings
heavy rains to most of the
archipelagofrom May to October.
Annual rainfall in the northern
Philippines can be traced to
tropical cyclones, while the
southern islands receiving less
than 10 percent of their annual
rainfall from tropical cyclones.
The wettest known tropical
cyclone to impact the archipelago
was the July 1911 cyclone, which
dropped over 1,168 millimetres
(46.0 in) of rainfall within a 24hour period in Baguio City.

Evening Thunderstorms, bringing rain

over the Philippines is common from
March to October.

Rainfall
Rainfall is the most important climatic
element in the Philippines. Rainfall
distribution throughout the country varies
from one region to another, depending
upon the direction of the moisture-bearing
winds and the location of the mountain
systems.
The mean annual rainfall of the Philippines
varies from 965 to 4,064 millimeters
annually. Baguio City, eastern Samar, and
eastern Surigao receive the greatest
amount of rainfall while the southern
portion of Cotabato receives the least

TEMPERATURE
Based on the average of all weather stations in the
Philippines, excluding Baguio, the mean annual
temperature is 26.6o C. The coolest months fall in
January with a mean temperature of 25.5oC while
the warmest month occurs in May with a mean
temperature of 28.3oC. Latitude is an insignificant
factor in the variation of temperature while altitude
shows greater contrast in temperature. Thus, the
mean annual temperature of Baguio with an
elevation of 1,500 meters is 18.3oC. This makes the
temperature of Baguio comparable with those in
the temperate climate and because of this, it is
known as the summer capital of the Philippines.
The
difference between the mean annual
temperature of the southernmost station in

Climate of the Philippines

The average year-round temperature measured
from all Weather Stations in the Philippines.

Humidity
Humidity refers to the moisture content of
the atmosphere. Due to high temperature
and the surrounding bodies of water, the
Philippines has a high relative humidity.
The average monthly relative humidty
varies between 71 percent in March and 85
percent in September. The combination of
warm temperature and high relative and
absolute humidities give rise to high
sensible temperature throughout the
archipelago. It is especially uncomfortable
during March to May, when temperature
and humidity attain their maximum levels.

The Seasons
Using temperature and rainfall as
bases, the climate of the country can
be divided into two major seasons: (1)
the rainy season, from June to
November; and (2) the dry season,
from December to May. The dry season
may be subdivided further into (a) the
cool dry season, from December to
February; and (b) the hot dry season,
from March to May.

Climate of the Philippines

TYPHOONS
Bagy is the local term to any tropical
cyclone in the Philippine Islands.
From the statistics gathered by
PAGASA from 1948 to 2004, around
an average of 20 storms and/or
typhoons per year enter the PAR
(Philippine Area of Responsibility) the designated area assigned to
PAGASA to monitor during weather
disturbances. Those that made
landfall or crossed the Philippines,
the average was nine per year. In
1993, a record 19 typhoons made
landfall in the country making it the
most in one year. The least amount

Climate of the Philippines

TYPHOONS
PAGASA categorizes typhoons
into four types according to wind
speed. Once a tropical cyclone
enters the Philippine Area of
Responsibility,
regardless
of
strength, PAGASA gives it a local
name for identification purposes
by the media, government, and

Climate of the Philippines

Typhoons

have a great influence on the climate

and weather conditions of the Philippines. A great
portion of the rainfall, humidity and cloudiness
are due to the influence of typhoons. They
generally originate in the region of the Marianas
and Caroline Islands of the Pacific Ocean which
have the same latitudinal location as Mindanao.
Their movements follow a northwesterly
direction, sparing Mindanao from being directly
hit by majorty of the typhoons that cross the
country. This makes the southern Philippines very
desirable for agriculture and industrial
development.
Trivia !! A H A

Climate of the Philippines

o

Tropical rainforests are a type oftropical

climatein which there is nodry season all
years have mean precipitationvalues of at
least 60 mm (2.36 inches). Tropical rainforest
climates have no pronounced summer or
winter; it is typically hot and wet throughout
the year and rainfall is both heavy and
frequent. One day in an equatorial climate
can be very similar to the next, while the
change in temperature between day and
night may be larger than the average change
in temperature along the year.

Worldwide zones of Tropical rainforest

climate(Af)

Asia/Pacific
Apia,Samoa
Davao

City,Philippines
Tacloban, Leyte,Philippines

Bandar Seri Begawan,Brunei Darussalam

Banjarmasin,Indonesia
Biak,Indonesia
Colombo,Sri Lanka
George Town,Malaysia
Innisfail,Australia
Johor Bahru,Malaysia
Kota Kinabalu,Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia
Kuching,Malaysia
Medan,Indonesia
Padang,Indonesia
Palembang,Indonesia
Pekanbaru,Indonesia
Singapore
Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte,Sri Lanka
Tabubil,Papua New Guinea

Notable
cities with
rainforest
climate

Tropical savanna climateortropical wet

and dry climate have monthly mean
temperature above18 C(64F)in every
month of the year and typically a pronounced
dry season, with the driest month having
precipitation less than 60mm and also less
than (100 [total annual precipitation
{mm}/25]). This latter fact is in direct contrast
to atropical monsoon climate, whose driest
month sees less than 60mm of precipitation
but hasmore than (100 [total annual
precipitation {mm}/25]). In essence, a tropical
savanna climate tends to either see less
rainfall than a tropical monsoon climate or
have more pronounced dry seasons.

Worldwide zones of Tropical savanna climate (Aw).

Tropical monsoon climate, occasionally also known

as atropical wet climateortropical monsoon and
trade-wind littoral climateinclimate classification ,
is a relatively rare type ofclimate that corresponds to
theKppen climate classificationcategory "Am."
Tropical monsoon climates have monthly mean
temperatures above 18C in every month of the year
and featurewet and dryseasons, asTropical savanna
climates do. Unlike tropical savanna climates
however, a tropical monsoon climate's driest month
sees less than 60mm of precipitation butmore than
(100 [total annual precipitation {mm}/25]). Also a
tropical monsoon climate tends to see less variance in
temperatures during the course of the year than a
tropical savanna climate. This climate has a driest
month which nearly always occurs at or soon after .

Worldwide zones of tropical monsoon climate

(Am).

Ahumid subtropical climate is a zone of

subtropical climate characterized by hot, humid
summers and generally mild to cool winters.
Under the Kppen climate definition, this
category of climate type covers a broad range of
attributes, especially in terms of winter
temperatures. The term "subtropical" may be a
misnomer for locations along the cooler ranges.
The Kppen definition of this climate is for the
coldest month's mean temperature to be
between3 C(26.6F)and18 C(64.4F),
and the warmest month to be above22
C(71.6F). Some climatologists prefer to use0
C(32F)as the lower bound for the coldest
month's mean temperature. It is either
accompanied with a dry winter or has no
distinguished dry season (Kppen:

Humid subtropical climatezones of the world

A H A !!!!
The deadliest typhoon to
impact the Philippines was
Typhoon Uring (Thelma)
in November 1991, in
which 5,080 lives were lost
from its resultant flooding
and over 1,200 went
missing.

A H A !!!!
The highest wind velocity
recorded for a typhoon
that
crossed
the
Philippines was recorded in
Virac on November 30,
2006
when
Typhoon
Reming (Durian) had a
peak gust of 320 km/h