THE CLIMATE OF CEBU 

Step V, the legendary businessman, jokes that Cebu has two seasons, hot and warm. The official version is that the seasons are dry and rainy. It has to be said that climate change has had an impact on Cebu. Both seasons are wetter than they used to be. Decades ago, you could go months without rain in the dry season. Nowadays, it rains regularly even in the dry season. In the long rainy season, it rains and rains and rains for months. The good thing about this is that it doesn't really get that hot most of the time.

The hot and (relatively) dry season is from January until May. If we're lucky, we might go as long as three weeks without any rain. This is the summer here. We actually call it that; schools have their long summer vacation from March until May. The school year also starts in June.

I remember interviewing a college kid for a domestic job when I first arrived in Cebu. "When can you start?" I asked her. "I can work during the summer vacation," she replied. I was annoyed. It was still early March. "Hey, I told your brother I need someone this week!" She didn't understand my irritation. Cebuanos don't get worked up easily anyway. "But I can work in the summer," she kept repeating.

Well, it turns out that some Cebuanos aren't aware that in exotic places like the United States and Europe the term summer connotes June, July, and August, as opposed to March, April, and May.

But I was telling you about the climate. In the coastal zone, the temperature hovers at 27 - 29 degrees Celsius (81 - 84 Fahrenheit) all year round. Average monthly rainfall and number of rainy days per month are as follows.

JANUARY		104mm [11 days]
FEBRUARY		75 [8]
MARCH		54 [7]
APRIL		44 [5]
MAY		71 [6]
JUNE		188 [14]
JULY		192 [15]
AUGUST		148 [12]
SEPTEMBER		174 [14]
OCTOBER		182 [15]
NOVEMBER		147 [12]
DECEMBER		127 [12]

The humidity may be seem a bit high at first, but you quickly get used to that. There are two zones, coastal and mountain. Cebu City itself and virtually all inhabited towns are located at sea level, on a narrow band stretching around the island. Some of the tonier subdivisions of Cebu City are in the hills. In the city the daytime temperature will be 30 degrees Celsius or higher in the shade; during the night it may drop down slightly. You need air conditioning, or at least an electric fan - even in the cooler rainy season. But in the hills, it gets quite cold. The central highlands are always breezy and cool, and usually start to get foggy in the late afternoon. Most visitors never notice that the island is actually comprised mostly of hilly territory where the daytime temperature is in the low twenties Celsius.

On March 17, 1957, President Magsaysay's plain crashed into 908-meter-high Mt Manunggal, not far from Cebu City. The event is commemorated every year when lots of young people - students, mostly - trek to Mt Manunggal, build campfires, and drink lots of beer. It's the closest thing we in Cebu have to Burning Man. But let me tell you this, it's freezing up there, especially at night. You'll need a warm jacket, at least.

Now, just in case you got the impression that Cebu is a chilly place, let me tell you about our sun.

One mistake sun-deprived visitors from northern climes often make is to expose themsleves to direct sunlight. It is a mistake to think that the Filipino sun is the same pale yellow disc which occasionally manages to send feeble rays through the clouds in the northern hemisphere. The sun in Cebu is tropical and it is intense. One should think of it as radiation rather than sunlight. Even Cebuanos make every effort to stay out of the sun. Direct sunlight is not just hot, it's so hot that what you get is a a relentless wave of heavy pressure bearing down on you. If you wander about in the sun you will start to perspire intensely within minutes, and after an hour you'll have first-degree burns on any exposed skin. And don't for a minute think that a hat will protect you against the sun. A hat might be good for the namby pamby sunlight they have in places like Arizona. Here, you something more encompassing. For instance, local motorcycle riders regularly wear ski masks.