PAGASA: El Niño possible to end in June

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said on Monday that the prevailing El Niño in the country is currently weakening and may be terminated in June.

"We are already in a weak El Niño, and we expect that by June this El Niño season will be over," PAGASA weather specialist Benison Estareja said in a televised interview.

Thus, "Our temperatures will be normal or neutral again.”

However, Estareja said that there will be a lag effect, which means the effect of El Niño will have a slight delay.

Due to this, he said that the lack of rain may last until the end of May.

In March, the weather bureau issued a La Niña watch alert, which means there is a level of more than 70 percent of a La Niña occurrence.

“We see an increasing probability, more than 60 percent,” PAGASA Climate Monitoring and Prediction Section chief Analiza Solis earlier said, adding that based on the bureau’s El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Alert System, it still falls under La Niña Watch and does not yet fall under La Niña Alert.

“When PAGASA releases the La Niña Alert, that means it is at a level of more than 70 percent, meaning there is already a guarantee that in the next two to three months, La Niña will arrive," Solis explained.

The latest report from the Department of Agriculture (DA) showed that the agriculture damage incurred by the country due to El Niño has reached P6.35 billion.

The volume losses from the affected agricultural areas are estimated at 134,828 metric tons (MT) for palay, 105,896 MT for corn, 28,956 MT for high-value crops, and 140 MT for cassava, totaling 269,416 MT.

On Sunday, the DA said that the government has already extended over P2 billion worth of assistance to farmers whose livelihoods were adversely affected by the phenomenon.