Review Travel Plans as Temperature in PH Soars Up to 52.1°C
MANILA: Filipinos planning to visit their home country in the coming days are advised to take extra precautions as the temperature has continued to soar across the Philippines with the actual heat index hitting “dangerous levels” in the past few days.
The heat index came close to being broken for the third time this week when the capital city of Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija province in Central Luzon reached 52.1°Ç due to the high air temperature, Gulf Today quoted weathermen as saying.
Health experts have warned Filipinos to take all necessary precautions against heat stroke, the report said.
Weathermen reportedly said heat index, gives the apparent temperature or what humans perceive or feel as the temperature affecting their body.
“High air temperatures and high relative humidity will give high apparent temperature or indices. Full exposure to sunshine can increase the heat index by nine degrees,” they explained.
Of the 53 weather stations in the country, 40 recorded a maximum heat index ranging from 40.2°Ç on the island province of Palawan to 39.5°Ç in Cagayan province in the Northern Luzon highlands and Surigao del Norte in Mindanao, according to weathermen.
They also reportedly noted that even in Baguio City, the Philippines “summer capital” in Northern Luzon, reached a maximum 30.5°Ç.
Weathermen have warned Filipinos of the danger when the heat index hits 41°Ç and higher, pointing out this might cause heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke and of “extreme danger” when the heat index breaches 54°Ç, said the Sharjah-based news portal.
As the temperature soared, Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz of the Department of Labor and Employment ordered all employers to adopt safety and health measures to protect workers from possible heat stroke.
Baldoz, for instance, ordered employers to adopt a “flexible work schedule” to minimize the exposure of workers to high temperature and strenuous work.
If the workers agree, employers may adopt alternative arrangements or temporary flexible work arrangement to adjust work hours while maintaining the required number of work hours within the day or week until such time that the weather has improved, Baldoz was quoted as saying by Gulf Today.
(Source: FilipinoTimes.ae)