Baguio weather drops to 11 degrees

BAGUIO CITY — Tourists wanting to have a feel of this mountain resort city’s cool and romantic weather can start flocking to the city because its temperature is dropping.

The mercury level of the thermometer of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s Baguio weather station slipped to 11 degrees Celsius Monday morning.

Last week, the city recorded an average of 12.0 degrees Celsius as its minimum temperature from November 30 to December 6, 2009 after registering 11.2 degrees Celsius minimum temperature on December, 2 and 6, 2009.

Wilson Locando, PAGASA weather specialist here, said the drop in the city’s minimum temperature will continue up to March next year because of the northeast monsoon which is bringing to the country the cold Siberian winds from the North Pole.

Because of expected continuous drop in the city’s temperature, health authorities urged residents and tourists to bring with them their thick clothes to protect them from upper respiratory diseases which could be caused by the cold weather.

The city’s cold weather becomes cooler in the afternoon because of the prevalence of cloudy skies which block the sunlight from keeping the people warm.

Weathermen could not actually predict whether the city’s prevailing cool temperature could break the 7.5 degrees Celsius lowest temperature recorded in the city on January 15, 2009 which is the fifth lowest in the history of the city.

In Benguet, highly elevated areas recorded 8.5 degrees Celsius minimum temperature Monday morning, which caused alarm among thousands of farmers because of the expected onslaught of frost bites in their crops that are on their vegetative, flowering and harvestable stages.

Locando said the prevailing temperature in highly elevated areas in Baguio and Benguet are at least 3 degrees Celsius lower than the temperature in the city because of the factor of elevation. – Dexter A. See