Tropical Storm Marce exits land, now over Jintotolo Channel

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MANILA, Philippines – Marce intensified from a tropical depression into a tropical storm before dawn on Friday, November 25.

In its bulletin issued 8 am on Friday, state weather bureau PAGASA said Marce has already crossed the northern tip of Iloilo. It is 15 kilometers north northeast of Roxas City, Capiz, and over the Jintotolo Channel, which connects the Sibuyan Sea with the Visayan Sea.

Marce is moving west northwest at 22 kilometers per hour (km/h), with maximum winds of up to 65 km/h and gustiness of up to 110 km/h.

It had made landfall in Surigao del Norte on Thursday afternoon, November 24.

Signal number 2 is raised in the following areas:

• Romblon
• Calamian Group of Islands
• southern Occidental Mindoro
• southern Oriental Mindoro
• Iloilo
• Capiz
• Aklan
• northern Antique

Signal number 1, meanwhile, is up over:

• northern Palawan including Cuyo Island
• rest of Oriental Mindoro
• rest of Occidental Mindoro including Lubang Island
• Masbate including Burias Island and Ticao Island
• Biliran
• Leyte
• northern Cebu including Bantayan Island and Camotes Islands
• Negros Occidental
• rest of Antique
• Guimaras

Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected within the 300-km diameter of the tropical storm.

Those in areas under signal numbers 1 and 2, as well as the rest of the Bicol Region and the provinces of Marinduque and Quezon, should watch out for possible floods and landslides.

Sea travel is also risky in the northern and eastern seaboards of Northern Luzon and the seaboards of Central Luzon and Southern Luzon.

Marce is expected to leave the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on Sunday, November 27.

– Rappler.com