Temperature plunge ushers in New Year in Baguio City

BAGUIO CITY — A sudden drop in temperature ushered in the year 2001 in this city, with mercury readings at 12 degrees Centigrade at dawn of New Year’s Eve and 11.6 degrees Centigrade on New Year’s Day.

The sudden temperature plunge on Dec. 31 manifested itself in a thick fog that enveloped the entire city by mid-afternoon that day.

The Dec. 31 cold chilled the bones of city folk who were used to an average temperature of 15 degrees Centigrade the whole of December. The temperature was even 3.5 degrees higher on Dec. 29.

The New Year’s Eve temperature drop was a precursor of colder mornings to come: the mercury reading on the first day of the new millennium dipped to 11.6 degrees Centigrade, according to Baguio-based weather forecaster Salvador Olinares.

The New Year’s Day temperature rose by a degree to 12.6 degrees the following day. Olinares said temperatures here are normally lower in January and February. The lowest temperature — 6.3 degrees Centigrade — was recorded on Jan. 18, 1961.

The lowest temperature last year was logged on Jan. 29, 2000 at 9.4 degrees Centigrade.

Baguio’s warmest day on record was on May 15, 1988, a decade before the dry and warm El Niño phenomenon struck the country in the late 1990s. The un-Baguio-like temperature? A searing temperature of 30.4 degrees Centigrade.

Last year’s warmest day was on May 5 with a temperature of 26.4 degrees Centigrade.

Olinares said the temperature in this summer capital normally ranges from 15 to 23 degrees Centigrade, regardless of the climatic condition, with a mean daily temperature at 18 degrees.