The weather is expected to normalize next month as La Niña begins to falter, an official of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Wednesday.

Gerry Pedrico, chief of Pagasa-Davao, said Wednesday in the weekly Club 888 forum at Marco Polo Hotel that there will be minimal rains in March compared to the first two months when the atmospheric  phenomenon was peaking.

“So we could not ascertain yet that the whole month of March and April will have an all-time humid weather,” he said.

As of yesterday, the forecast of the agency stated that tail-end of a cold front has affected Visayas and Mindanao. This means Visayas and Mindanao will “experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and isolated thunderstorms.”

Pedrico also said the heavy downpour which flooded most parts of the city on Tuesday night was the product of the cloudiness that developed over time and became scattered rainshowers and thunderstorm.

He said the thunderstorm on Tuesday night was only limited to Davao City.

“Tuesday night’s weather was an example of climate change.  The weather was fine yesterday and then suddenly  at night, it became cloudy and suddenly the strong rainfall happened.  We need to heighten our awareness of the many possibilities even if the weather system is far from our specific location,” Pedrico said.

Pedrio said the sudden change of weather could have been detected if the Doppler Radar in Tampakan, South Cotabato is only operational. The device will detect a weather system within the 400-kilometer-radius. To date, only the radar in Caraga is operational.

He stressed that people must no longer underestimate the impact even of tropical storms since they usually carry large amount of rainfall.  Just like tropical storm “Ondoy” that hit Metro Manila, tropical storm “Sendong” which flooded the cities of Cagayan and Iligan carried large amount of water.

He said Ondoy and Sendong fell only on category two or weaker weather system.

Pedrico said Category 2 or tropical storms have wind strength from 64 to 117 kilometers per hour.

He said weather system that falls 118 kilometers per hour and above is classified as typhoon.

“People must be more alert on the warnings that we give from time to time since the weather systems nowadays are closer in Mindanao area, a phenomenon that happens on the first  and last quarters of the year,” he said. (with reports from Jose G. Dalumpines)

A Central 911 firetruck offers a lift to stranded passengers along Quirino Avenue as the city overflowed with floodwaters on Tuesday evening.