Jenny intensifies on exit from Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The state weather bureau yesterday placed the Batanes Group of Islands under storm warning signal No. 1 as Typhoon Jenny (international name Dujuan) intensified further while hovering over the Philippine Sea.

Aldczar Aurelio, weather forecaster of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), said rains and gusty winds of 30 to 60 kilometers per hour might affect the area in the next 36 hours.

Jenny is not expected to hit landmass, but it will continue to enhance the southwest monsoon, which will bring rains over Luzon and Visayas in the next days.

Jenny, the 10th tropical cyclone to enter the country this year and the first weather disturbance this month, is expected to dump moderate to heavy rains within its 600-km diameter, PAGASA said.

Cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and isolated thunderstorms will be experienced over Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon and Visayas.

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated thunderstorms, meanwhile, will prevail over Mindanao.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the eye of the typhoon was spotted at 530 kilometers east-northeast of Itbayat, Batanes with maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 220 kph.

It was forecast to move west-northwest toward Taiwan at 15 kph. 

Aurelio advised the public not to venture into the seaboards of Northern Luzon and over the eastern seaboard of Central and Southern Luzon, as well as the seaboards of Samar due to big waves generated by Jenny and the southwest monsoon.

Jenny is projected to be at 375 km northeast of Itbayat this afternoon, 675 km northwest of Itbayat by Tuesday afternoon, and 1,055 km northwest of Itbayat or outside the Philippine area of responsibility by Wednesday.