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The Philippine Archipelago pp 37–59Cite as

A Tropical Archipelago

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Abstract

The tropical maritime climate of the Philippines is marked by high temperature and abundant rainfall. The chapter first examines the major characteristics of the climate, dominated by the seasonal alternation of the Amihan and Habagat monsoons, leading to sharp differences between regions for their patterns of rainy seasons. Typhoons from the western Pacific hit the islands with brutal force, even if some years are more prone than others to the onslaught of tropical storms, depending on the general atmospheric circulation and the strength—or absence—of El Niño or La Niña. Typhoons not directly hitting the Philippines can still generate high levels of rainfall and enhance flooding, due to the increase in the strength of the habagat southwest monsoon flow. Local conditions may affect the patterns of precipitation at different scales of space and time. In this mostly wet country, episodes of drought may also occur and cause problems for agriculture, especially for rice growing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The hottest temperature ever recorded in the Philippines was 42.2° in Tugueguarao (Cagayan province of northern Luzon) on April 20th, 1912 and May 11th, 1969. It stands as the record high temperature for Oceania (Australia excepted). Source : World Meteorological Organization/Arizona State University—http://wmo.asu.edu/#continental

  2. 2.

    Manila’s all-time record high temperature stands at 38.5° on May 14th, 1987.

  3. 3.

    http://pagasa.dost.gov.ph/index.php/climate-agromet/climate-info-statistics/climatological-normals. Values are calculated on a 30-year average covering the 1980–2010 period.

  4. 4.

    http://en.tutiempo.net/climate/philippines.html

  5. 5.

    “Hangin” means “wind” in tagalog.

  6. 6.

    Baguio – in altitude - experienced its lowest temperature at 6.3 °C on January 18th, 1961. Frost and snow are unknown to most Filipinos except if they have traveled abroad in winter. At sea-level, Tuguegarao registered its lowest ever at 12.2° in January 1969. The all-time lowest temperature recorded in Metro Manila was at 15.1° Celsius on February 4th, 1987 and December 30th, 1988. In Legazpi (SE Luzon), the record low was 13.9° on February 28th, 1971. For many people, any temperature below 20 °C with some breeze feels very cold, when it is comfortable for Westerners.

  7. 7.

    Sometimes called siyam-siyam, 9-9, because they are said to last 9 days and 9 nights.

  8. 8.

    The term typhoon appears to be derived from the Cantonese “tai-fun” (big wind). They are the same kind of atmospheric phenomenon as North American hurricanes (from the Carib god of the winds Juracan) or Indian Ocean ’s cyclones.

  9. 9.

    Historians have been able to reconstruct a good part of the meteorological major events of the Philippine since pre-colonial times, in part due to navigation logs from the galleon trade (Garcia et al. 2001; Ribera et al. n.d.-a, n.d.-b, Ribera et al. 2008; Warren 2012).

  10. 10.

    http://pagasa.dost.gov.ph/index.php/learning-tools/philippine-tropical-cylcone-names

  11. 11.

    http://www.typhooncommittee.org/list-of-names-for-tropical-cyclones/

  12. 12.

    This acronym means “hope” in tagalog.

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  1. Département de Géographie, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France

    Yves Boquet

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Boquet, Y. (2017). A Tropical Archipelago. In: The Philippine Archipelago. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51926-5_3

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