31/08/2022
A super typhoon with the international name Hinnamnor is expected to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on Wednesday night, state weather bureau PAGASA said.
Hinnamnor, last spotted 1,510 kilometers east northeast of extreme northern Luzon as a Category 5 “super typhoon”, was packing 185 kph maximum sustained winds and up to 230 kph gusts, the weather agency said.
In March, PAGASA revised its definition of a “super typhoon” to packing maximum sustained winds of at least 185 kilometers per hour.
The country’s last super typhoon was Typhoon Odette, which ravaged southern and central regions of the archipelago on December 16, leaving 406 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.
In 2013, Typhoon Yolanda was the strongest storm ever to have made landfall, leaving over 7,300 people dead or missing.
Meanwhile, a low-pressure area (LPA) off east of extreme northern Luzon developed into a tropical depression Gardo on Tuesday afternoon.
Gardo was 1,195 kilometers east of extreme Northern Luzon at 3 p.m., packing maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour and 70 kph gusts, said PAGASA.
The storm’s trough or extension will bring cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms in Aurora, Calabarzon, and Camarines Norte.
The agency earlier said it is not ruling out the possibility of these two weather systems merging as they move closer to the country.
PAGASA said Metro Manila and the rest of the country will experience localized thunderstorms. | Sean Rafio