Do Philippines Have Winter

The chilliest months occurs in mid-January till late Febuary where the cold winds from mainland Russia blows towards the Philippines.

These winds sends chills early in the morning when the sun is about to rise.

Compared to countries with a thick layer of snow and ice in winter, does Philippines have snow?

It was all but a dream, I was awakened by a deathly chill early one morning of November, when the temperature suddenly drop to 21°-22°C.

In lowlands such as ours it is impossible for temperature to drop this low.

Well, the fan was on and the time was 2:30 am so I turned off the fan and began to sleep again.

Yet, as I was deep in my sleep I dreamt the impossible, it snowed in Mt. Pangasugan (the prominent mountain of our town and not the highest peak of our island).

In my dream it looked like The Alps but with lighter snow on its peaks, as light as early winter of the mountains and in my dream I beg my friend to take a photo of Mt. Pangasugan with snow above it.

The deathly chill came strong again this time without a fan so I woke up from my dream.

I looked at the time and realized it was now 4:30 am, and as I remembered my dream I begin asking myself if the snow was real.

So I went out of our house to look at the mountain, the new house covered the view so I tried finding a better view of its peak.

I climbed at the window hoping to see the glimpse of my dream and as I looked a dense fog covered the entire peak of the mountain.

I still ask myself if my dream was real and I silently asked God to give me a sign.

Then for a few moments as the thick fog began to rise up from the mountains, I saw the impossible, a glass like glitters shined beneath the thick layer of fog.

Somewhere where the daylight had little chance to pass through on the sides of the shadowy cliffs, the leaves of the trees is full of frost.

It glitters behind the fog where the sea winds cannot pass through instead it cools to temperatures below 10°C.

Mt. Apo, the tallest peak of the Philippines had a sudden temperature drop of 5°C at night and beacuse of this no plants could grow at the top of its peak.

Frost could kill the leaves of the plants and as we walked to see Mt. Pangasugan this time, some of the green parts of the mountain are left burnt from the thick frost that once covered it.

It was a frost and not a snow, more like a pre-winter weather we suddenly experienced which never came again.

It rains on most days in our town closest to Mt. Pangasugan where the steep mountain range captures the clouds as it passes through and drop them as rain.

The mountain sheild us from storms but there are dangers of a mudslide also in town such as ours.

I dreamt of a snow weather in the Philippines but realized we were too unprepared for the cold.

It's been raining for a month now and thick clouds hover above the moutains, a lot different than fog on early mornings.

Fog is usually around when it rains early in the morning and it cools the ground.

And here I am dreaming of things impossible in tropical countries.

We had rainy and heavy rainy season--even rare was a pre-winter feel when cloudy days had become constant at most nights and creates frost as the temperature drop drastically on the mountain tops.

Most parts of the Philippines had no winter, only slight winter on the northern islands of the Batanes group of islands (I read it on google), and cooler temperatures above the moutains on the provinces like Baguio but rather we had two dry season and two rainy season because we are near the equator.

I haven't took a photo of the fog that covered Mt. Pangasugan but here is a photo of Lake Danao Natural Park that is covered with fog.

Shall I say what it's like when you are inside a thick layer of clouds, perhaps it is the most surreal experience of the tropics.

Walking in the mountains and being inside a cloud, as my father stated (he's a forest guy), is like under the shower of misty rain full of fog making us know that a cloud just passed through and we are inside it, and I only experieced it once in our hike.

I wish to visit the sea of clouds which a famous to-go-place of our town but I noticed in the photos that it might be a dense early morning fog and you'll gonna catch it before it disappears.

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ABOUT ME

@janesuiren is an introverted night owl who enjoys coffee a lot. An otaku and a foodie, she also lives inside the stories she dreams to publish one day. You can catch her admiring her rainy and picturesque hometown in Western Leyte, Philippines.

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