There Is No Summer in the Philippines, Says PAGASA
Like most things in life, the good times of cool February days went by too fast. We haven't even maxed out our quota for cold weather-related hugot lines and bam!, March is already here—and so is the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration's annual headache of trying to explain to everyone that no, "there is no 'summer' in the Philippines."
Technically speaking, what we have here is a "hot dry season," according to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration's (PAGASA) website. You might recall from your elementary days the two prevailing seasons of the country: the rainy, from June to November; and the dry, from December to May (Christmas being the third unofficial one).
The dry season is also halved, according to PAGASA. There are the cool, dry months of December, January, and February, and the hot, dry months of March, April, and May—our so-called "summer" months.
there is no "summer" in the Philippines. Ang buwan ng Marso, Abril, at Mayo ay ang “dry season”.
— PAGASA-DOST (@dost_pagasa) March 5, 2020
The Philippines actually has four climate types based on the amount of rainfall. The four climate types are shown in a climate map depicting the Modified Coronas Classification.
Depende rin sa topography ang dry at wet season sa Pilipinas. Please refer to the climate map of our country for more information. Thank you . pic.twitter.com/CJc1708nir
— PAGASA-DOST (@dost_pagasa) March 5, 2020
'Summer' is Cooler than Saying 'Dry Season'
So why can't we have nice things, you ask? "Summer" sounds infinitely cooler. Can you imagine referring to summer classes as "dry season classes" or summer vacation as "dry season vacay"?
Technically, the four seasons are felt elsewhere on the globe, while our location near the equator means our blessed tropics stick to either dry or wet, as explained by BA Racoma of the University of Philippines’ Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology in the Twitter thread above.
This could be compared to the explanation as well behind the fact that we can never have "hurricanes" or "cyclones" and only "typhoons." The three may seem like similar phenomena—all can be called by the generic term "tropical storms"—but the correct term will depend on where it occurs, explains an article on BBC News.
It's probably time to decolonise weather terminologies.
— BA Racoma (?) (@bumaBAgyo) March 1, 2020
Technically, WALANG summer sa Pilipinas. Ayon sa PAGASA, ang buwan ng Marso, Abril, Mayo ay ang "hot dry season" o tagtuyong mainit.
1/https://t.co/RGvzB9dODL
And thanks as well to the diverse formations of our 7,641 islands, the prevailing season doesn't, well, prevail everywhere. PAGASA could declare the dry season officially begun, but that certainly won't stop the rain from possibly falling somewhere in the country, adds Racoma in another tweet.
With all the science that goes on in PAGASA, you might want to double-check your terms the next time you ask them on social media when you can officially get your "vitamin sea" on. You won't land in jail for using the term "summer," but at least you won't exasperate the poor guys.
This story originally appeared on Spot.ph. Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.
