The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration declared on Friday that summer has begun, as the Amihan season has officially ended.

“Today, we officially declare the start of the Philippine summer based on an analysis of the latest forecast,” said PAGASA chief Dr. Nathaniel Servando.

“We expect [that] the number of warm and dryer days will increase in the coming weeks and the coming months,” he added.

According to PAGASA, there is technically no summer in the Philippines, for it only has two major seasons: rainy from June to November and dry from December to May, which the Filipinos refer to as “summer.”

The weather bureau explained that “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.”

La Niña’s increasing probability

Meanwhile, PAGASA Climate Monitoring and Prediction Section chief Analiza Solis said the La Niña is still pre-developing.

“What we said is around 55 percent probability, at least six months from now, La Niña may form. It is somewhat weak right now,” she said.

“We see an increasing probability, more than 60 percent,” she continued, adding that based on the bureau’s El Niño-Southern Oscillation Alert System, it still falls under La Niña Watch.