THE low pressure area (LPA) monitored south of Guam has developed into a tropical depression outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Tuesday.
While over the Philippine Sea, the tropical depression is projected to gradually strengthen, potentially reaching typhoon category by Thursday and super typhoon category during the weekend.
Pagasa said the center of the tropical depression was estimated at 1,985 kilometers east of northeastern Mindanao (9.9°N, 143.6°E).
It packs maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour (km/h) near the center, gustiness of up to 70 km/h, and a central pressure of 1004 hPa. The weather disturbance is moving westward at 20 km/h, with strong winds extending outward up to 300 kilometers from the center.
The tropical depression is expected to slow down while moving westward over the next 24 hours and may exhibit erratic movement before gradually accelerating northwestward over the Philippine Sea until Friday. It is then forecast to turn west-northwestward by Saturday.
On its current track, Pagasa said the system may enter the PAR by Friday evening or Saturday, at which point it will be assigned the local name “Uwan.”
