According to the Philippine government’s weather agency (PAGASA). Last Tuesday’s 36.8 deg. Celsius was not the hottest record to date for the Philippines.
The hottest temperature measured was 42.2 deg. Celsius, it was recorded in Tugeugarao, Cagayan on April 29 and May 11, 1969. The National Capital Region had its hottest day on May 14, 1987 when Quezon City recorded a whopping 38.5 deg. Celsius. Even though we can say that 2007 temperatures haven’t broken existing records the resulting effect is that the high temperatures are causing the general populace to turn on their airconditioning and other appliances in order to keep cool.
This high demand had resulted in a 270 MW power plant to trip causing blackouts in the National Capital Region. I was wondering how that could have happened because looking at the report filed by the DOE on the Philippine Power Outlook, we have about a 51.5% reserve capacity in our grid for 2007(click on image) and should only start worrying about lack of energy prior to 2010 (it takes about 2 years to build a power plant, ECC permitting excluded). Then again of course, it could be because they had no ready reserves available at that time because they weren’t anticipating that much demand from the grid so they turned off some of their generating units to save on operating costs.
Original Article here
Category: Global Warming
April 25th, 2007 at 11:16 am
[…] From the Philippine Weather Bureau (PAGASA), the Philippines should expect a hot summer with April temperatures being just the tip of the iceberg. After summer we are told to expect a 3 month rainy season courtesy of La Nina. Last week the 2007 Philippine record temperature was 36.8 degrees Celsius, a week later it was pegged at 37. This weeks record temperature is still far from the Philippine record of 42.2 deg. Celsius. Filipino’s just have to grin and bear it as well as try to ensure that one is well hydrated. Not to mention to watch out for telltale signs of heat stroke (where the body can’t cool itself anymore causing one to over heat due to too much exposure to heat), especially on the young and elderly. Related Articles: […]