Habagat to bring cloudy skies, scattered rains over Zambales, Bataan, 9 other areas

The southwest monsoon or habagat will be affecting Southern Luzon, Visayas, and the western section of Mindanao, PAGASA reported.

The weather bureau is also monitoring an active tropical cyclone, which is outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).

As of 5 a.m., PAGASA announced that Nanmadol has intensified into a Severe Tropical Storm.

The center of the Severe Tropical Storm was estimated at 1,830 kilometers east northeast of extreme Northern Luzon (Outside the PAR) packing maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour near the center, gustiness of up to 115 km/h, central pressure of 985 hPa, and moving west northwestward at 15 km/h.

Nanmadol is forecast to gradually accelerate moving west northwestward today through tomorrow, then turn more northwestward on Saturday and may enter the PAR region tonight or Friday morning. Once inside the PAR, the domestic name "JOSIE" will be assigned to this tropical cyclone.

Zambales, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Aklan, Antique, Negros Occidental, Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi will have cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms brought about by the southwest monsoon with possible flash floods or landslides due to moderate to at times heavy rains.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms due to the southwest monsoon and localized thunderstorms with possible flash floods or landslides during severe thunderstorms.

Southern Luzon, Visayas and the western section of Mindanao will experience moderate wind speed moving in the southwest to west while coastal waters will be moderate.

Northern and Central Luzon will experience light to moderate wind speed moving in the northwest to west direction as coastal waters will be slight to moderate.

The rest of Mindanao will experience light to moderate wind speed moving in the southwest to west direction while coastal waters will be slight to moderate.

Sunrise will be at 5:45 a.m., sunset at 5:58 p.m. -- BAP, GMA News