TROPICAL STORM Maring, with international name Kompasu, will bring strong rains and winds in the northern parts of the country on Oct. 11 to 12, according to state weather bureau PAGASA.
In Sunday morning’s update, PAGASA weather specialist Ezra Bulquerin said Maring was absorbing the remnants of tropical depression Nando, which has already weakened into a low pressure area.
“That is why we expect strong rains and intermittent strong winds in northern Luzon on Monday to Tuesday,” Mr. Bulquerin said.
“The merger event (between Maring and Nando) has completed. The merger cyclone is forecast to gradually intensify and may be upgraded to severe tropical storm category within the next 24 hours,” according to the forecast of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).
With Maring’s wide berth, typhoon signal #1 was up in provinces in northern Luzon as well as in parts of the Visayas in central Philippines and in Northern Mindanao in the south
As of 10 a.m. Sunday, Maring was located 730 kilometers (kms) east of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan with maximum sustained winds of 85 kms per hour (kms/h) near the center and gustiness of up to 105 kms/h.
Its tropical cyclone winds extend outwards up to 750 kms from the center, according to PAGASA.
Meanwhile, damage to agricultural produce caused by tropical depression Lannie, which preceded Maring, amounted to P31.7 million, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
In its latest bulletin dated Oct. 8, the DA said damage to rice production totaled 1,377 metric tons (MT). A total of 1,953 farmers and 2,084 hectares of rice farms in Western Visayas were affected.
“The DA, through its regional field offices, is conducting further assessment and validation of damage and losses brought by Tropical Depression Lannie in the agri-fisheries sector,” the DA said.
Lannie is the 12th typhoon to enter the Philippines in 2021. It made 10 landfalls across northern Mindanao, Visayas, and Palawan before exiting on Oct. 6. — Marifi S. Jara and Revin Mikhael D. Ochave