Just wanted to share with you another weather service secret. I don’t rely on PAG-ASA reports anymore and in fact, I don’t use TV anymore to help me predict typhoons in the Philippines. The MOST reliable weather service that predicted Hurricane Katrina in the US is www.wunderground.com. In fact, the local officials during the Katrina was saying that they did not get any warning but wunderground.com has been predicting it already. It is very critical specially for travelers and people who wants to go on road trips like me.
Let me share with you as an example. Ivan and I with friends were planning to go to Mt. Pinatubo on Dec. 1 friday and we arranged this way back. As early as Monday, I told Ivan that we will cancel it because wunderground.com is predicting that Super Typhoon Durian (locally called Reming) will hit Manila on Thursday afternoon. At this point, there were no news about it in the media. Ivan kept on asking me when I can confirm it and I just said to him that I’ll keep on tracking the typhoon via this online service.
In fact the photo above is the latest tracking of the typhoon. It will hit Philippine shores by 9am today. In the afternoon, it will hit Category 3 status (111-130 mph) similar to typhoon Milenyo. Originally, it was forecasted to be Category 5 so fortunately, it slowed down a bit. If it remained as a Category 5 and hit Manila, I would be staying at home definitely and pray.
Another story. We were suppose to go to the Bulacan Sale this afternoon, but I insisted that we go this morning. The typhoon is predicted to get soo big in the afternoon. that we might get stuck in the floods of North Luzon highway. So, I was able to convince my wife and friends to go first thing this morning.
The internet is so powerful that you just need to know how to seek the right information. I do hope this tip could save lives and your family in the future. Btw, we use this weather tracking system in our company and we plan accordingly based on this. This usually gave us 1-2 days lead time and planning ahead of any weather warnings from PAG-ASA.
Thanks Wunderground.com!! You guys save lives 🙂
Totally agree with you about wunderground.com – I went straight to this site the minute our Village sent out circulars telling people to stock up on basic commodities, store water, check their batteries and gensets, etc.
Typhoon went from Category 1 to Category 4 in the space of 24 hours, according to one of their blogs. @__@
thanks bro for sharing!
Thanks for sharing this site! and to think I was relying on the PAG-ASA website for the updates on the coming typhoon.
Hi, Thanks for the info… Magchacharge na ako nang mga gadgets ko 😉 hehe
Thanks Anton! Another very helpful tip from you…. as usual!
Hi Anton. Yup, I agree Wunderground is great (as mentioned in JetSet Mag).
I also like to go to http://www.maybagyo,com. Very detailed, with consolidated reports from numerous weather bureaus, both local and foreign. It’s independent and small time, so you have to admire the effort and dedication. During Milenyo, since broadband access and electricity were down, they relied on a laptop and PLDT WeRoam, just to keep the site updated with up-to-the-minute typhoon news. The site used to be called typhoon2000. Check it out.
Thanks for the link!
have you tried typhoon2000.ph? i prefer this site.