The breakwater in Zamboanga City suggests that Typhoon “Butchoy” is no pushover. Small vessels and fishing boats are warned not to venture out to sea as Butchoy makes waves. Photo by Al Jacinto

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said Butchoy maintained its strength toward northern Philippines while a new low-pressure area was spotted off the central part of the country early yesterday.

As of 2 a.m. local time (1800 GMT Saturday), the typhoon was 980km east of Northern Luzon, according to the weather bureau.

It is the first major tropical storm to hit the country this year, which is visited by about 20 typhoons each year on average.

Butchoy packed maximum winds of 185km per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 220kph, and was moving north at 20kph, said the weather bureau.

Meanwhile, the new low-pressure area was spotted at 260km west of Mindoro, central Philippines, the bureau added, without elaborating if it would grow into another typhoon.

“Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will experience cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms becoming widespread rains over the western sections of the Visayas and Mindanao which may trigger flash floods and landslides,” it said. The Visayas is the country’s third-largest group of islands and Mindanao, the second.

The rest of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest group of islands, will be partly cloudy to at times cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or evening, according to the weather bureau.
-- Xinhua