It's now April and the sky above Metro Manila and surrounding provinces is dark and cloudy. The government's weather bureau says there is a shallow low pressure area (SLPA) south-west of Manila, and there is a cold front affecting the north-eastern part of the country.
Low pressure area and cold front, in late March and early April! These months are typically hot, noontime temperature would normally hit 36 Celsius.
Today is the 9th (or more) straight days of cloudy skies over Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, sometimes the entire archipelago. Noontime temperature is only 32 to 33 Celsius. Over the past 9 days, it rained at least 5x, some are short rains (10 minutes or less), some are longer (an hour or more). There was even street flooding in our neighborhood several nights ago.
I do not know if the same weather pattern is experienced in other neighboring countries in east Asia, I will have to ask my friends in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. But current weather in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces is definitely "abnormal", abnormally wet and cold. I don't remember having this kind of weather in the past 10 years or more.
The astrophysicists and other scientists who presented papers at the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) that I attended in NY last March 8-10, said "global warming is over", the peak of warming period was 1998, and all other world temperature was lower after 1998. The lack of solar activities (solar irradiance, sunspots, etc.) would mean global cooling, and they predict the cooling for the next 30 years.
If current trend of Philippine climate is any indicator as I am not a scientist to fully support or challenge the claims of the scientists that I have heard, then I am inclined to believe that global cooling is indeed upon us.
