(The Mountain Chill - Why the Cordillera Is Shivering in March)
Vodcasted on Pedro TV: March 14, 2026 | Format: Solo Monologue Vodcast
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Wherever you are in God's beautiful creation. This is Breaking Ground, the program where we dig beneath the surface of what is happening around us, in the world, in our community, and in our lives. Friends, I have to be honest with you today: it is COLD. I am up here in the Cordillera mountains, and this morning I woke up at five o'clock, checked the thermometer, and almost went back to bed in disbelief.
Nine degrees Celsius. NINE. Here in Baguio City. On March fourteenth.
Now, some of you lowlanders are thinking, "D. A. Chronos, nine degrees? That sounds wonderful!" And I understand. But let me tell you something, in the Cordillera, nine degrees in the middle of March is not wonderful. It is extraordinary. It is unusual. And today, on Breaking Ground, we are going to talk about why. Because there is a real science behind what is happening over these mountains right now, there are real health risks our communities need to hear about, and there is, as always, something worth reflecting on in all of this.
So grab your jacket. Pull your blanket a little closer. And let us break some ground.
Let me start by setting the scene for you, because I want you to really understand how unusual this is.
According to data from the DOST-PAGASA Baguio Synoptic Station, that is our official government weather bureau, the temperature here in Baguio this morning dropped to 9.0 degrees Celsius at five in the morning. Now that number alone might not mean much to you, so let me give you some context. During the Amihan season, the northeast monsoon, temperatures in Baguio typically range between twelve and sixteen degrees, especially during clear nights. January is normally our coldest month. January! Not March.
And here is the thing that really struck me: earlier this season, back in January 2026, Baguio recorded 10.6 degrees, and that was already being called the coldest reading of the monsoon season at that point. But today, in March, when the country is supposed to be warming up, when the dry season is knocking on the door, we went lower. Nine degrees. Below the January record.
That is not just cold. That is historically unusual for this time of year. This is, according to PAGASA records, the lowest temperature documented in Baguio City during the entire 2025 to 2026 Amihan season.
The fog outside is thick. The dew is heavy. The wind has teeth. And across the other municipalities of the Cordillera: Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga, Abra, Apayao. The people are feeling it even more intensely, especially in the higher elevation barangays where temperatures can drop a few degrees colder still.
Now before we go into why this is happening, let me quickly explain the Amihan for those of you who may be new to this. Bear with me, this is important background.
The Amihan is the Northeast Monsoon. Every year, from roughly November to March, winds blow across the Philippines from the northeast, from the direction of the Asian continent, across the South China Sea. These winds are naturally cool and dry. When they reach the mountains of the Cordillera, something called orographic lifting occurs. The mountains force the wind upward, and as air rises, it cools even further. This is why the Cordillera, and specifically Baguio, is always colder than the lowlands during Amihan season.
Normally, by mid-March, the Amihan begins to weaken. The easterlies, winds from the Pacific, start pushing back. The country transitions toward the dry season, and eventually into the hot, hot summer months of April and May. This is the normal cycle. This is what we expect every year.
But this year, the Amihan did not read the calendar. Instead of weakening gracefully, it surged again, sending a cold air mass down from the northeast and slamming it right into the Cordillera mountains. And so here we are, on March fourteenth, setting records we were not supposed to be setting.
This is the part I find genuinely fascinating, and I want to walk you through it carefully, because it connects the mountains of the Cordillera all the way to the Arctic Circle. Yes, you heard me right. The Arctic Circle.
Two big forces have been shaping global weather patterns this season, and both of them have made our Amihan more powerful than usual.
The first is La Niña. Now if you have been following our previous episodes or listening to the news, you will know that we had a La Niña episode throughout late 2025 and into early 2026. La Niña is the cool phase of what scientists call ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) and it refers to cooler-than-average ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. Now La Niña does not directly refrigerate the Philippines. But what it does is strengthen the northeast trade winds and alter the pattern of high-pressure systems across Asia. A stronger Amihan is a known downstream effect of La Niña conditions. PAGASA confirmed just this week, on March ninth, that the La Niña episode has now officially ended and conditions have returned to neutral. But by the time La Niña faded, it had already supercharged this final cold surge that we are feeling right now.
The second force is even more dramatic: the Polar Vortex. This is a large area of cold, low-pressure air that normally spins tightly around the North Pole, contained by powerful stratospheric winds. When that vortex is strong and stable, cold Arctic air stays locked up in the polar region where it belongs. But when the Polar Vortex weakens, or in scientific terms, when a Sudden Stratospheric Warming event disrupts it, chunks of that Arctic cold air break loose and spill much farther south than usual.
PAGASA's own climate chief, Ana Liza Solis, warned at the start of 2026 that cold surges were expected precisely because of this weakening of the Polar Vortex. And meteorologists across the globe were tracking an extraordinary stratospheric warming event, one of the earliest and strongest on record, that disrupted the Polar Vortex and sent cold air cascading down into lower latitudes. That extra push of cold continental air from northeast Asia is what enhanced our Amihan beyond its normal boundaries.
In simple terms: La Niña made the northeast wind stronger. The disrupted Polar Vortex made the air it was carrying colder. And the mountains of the Cordillera, faithful as always, caught every degree of that cold and held it close. That is why nine degrees in March. That is why we are breaking records that January normally owns.
Now let us talk about something very practical, because Breaking Ground is not just about understanding the world, it is about helping each other live and thrive in it. And this cold surge is a genuine health concern for our communities in the Cordillera.
First, let us talk about hypothermia. When the body loses heat faster than it can produce it, the core temperature drops, and the results can be dangerous, confusion, shivering that won't stop, slurred speech, and in severe cases, organ failure. The elderly, very young children, and those who are already unwell are at the highest risk. Check on your elders. Check on your neighbors. A knock on the door could save a life.
Second, this kind of cold and damp weather is prime season for respiratory infections, colds, flu, pneumonia, and for those with asthma or other lung conditions, serious flare-ups. Wear layers. Keep your chest and neck warm. Stay dry. If you are going outside in the early morning or late evening, cover your nose and mouth. Your lungs will thank you.
Third, and I say this particularly to our farmers and workers in the fields, do not underestimate what prolonged cold exposure does to your body. Frostbite is rare in the Cordillera, but chilblains, painful, itchy swelling of the skin caused by cold, are not. Wear proper footwear. Keep your hands covered. Take breaks indoors.
Here is a practical checklist for every household in the mountains right now: layer your clothing, thermal or flannel base layers are your best friends. Use blankets freely, especially for sleeping children and the elderly. Drink warm liquids throughout the day, hot water, ginger tea, soup. Avoid alcohol, which tricks the body into feeling warm while actually causing it to lose heat faster. Make sure your home has no drafts if possible. And please, if you or anyone in your household shows signs of extreme cold exposure, uncontrollable shivering, numbness, pale or bluish skin, seek medical attention immediately.
PAGASA has advised all of us to be prepared. Let us be prepared. That is wisdom. That is stewardship of the bodies God has given us.
Alright. The question everyone is asking. How long do we have to endure this? When does summer finally arrive?
The good news is, we are near the end. PAGASA weather specialists have noted that the Amihan season typically wraps up by mid-to-late March. In fact, one PAGASA forecaster noted that the dry season last year began in the third week of March. We are right at that transition window. The northeast monsoon is weakening overall, even if it surged powerfully one final time this week. The easterlies, those warmer Pacific winds, are already starting to reclaim territory across the country.
What this means practically is that this cold surge is likely the last major cold breath of the 2025 to 2026 Amihan season. By late March, temperatures should begin rising noticeably, even here in the Cordillera. April will feel like a completely different world, warmer mornings, more sunshine, the long dry season settling in. And then May brings the full, undeniable heat that the rest of the Philippines has been feeling for weeks already.
So if you are suffering through this cold right now, take heart. You are enduring the final chapter of this year's Amihan story. The sun is coming. It always does.
Now, I should add one note: PAGASA has confirmed that with La Niña now ending and ENSO-neutral conditions expected through mid-2026, weather patterns are transitioning. There is even a possibility of El Niño developing later this year, which would mean a hotter, drier dry season ahead. But that is a topic for another episode of Breaking Ground. Today, we focus on staying warm.
Before I let you go, I want to leave you with a thought. We who live in the Cordillera, we Igorots and all the peoples of these mountains, we have always known that the mountains demand respect. They are beautiful, yes. They are home, yes. But they are also powerful, and the weather they carry can be fierce.
Our ancestors built their communities on these mountains with wisdom. They knew the seasons. They prepared for the cold. They looked after one another when the wind came howling through the pines. That communal care, that bayanihan spirit, is not just cultural heritage. It is survival wisdom. And it is as relevant today, with nine degrees on the thermometer, as it was a hundred years ago.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter three: there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. There is a time for warmth and a time for cold. A time for sun and a time for fog. We do not always choose the season we find ourselves in. But we choose how we respond. We choose whether we look after our neighbors or leave them to shiver alone. We choose whether we panic at the unusual or trust that God, who set the seasons in motion, holds all of them in His hand.
So today, check on your lolo and lola. Bring a pot of hot soup to a neighbor. Put on an extra layer and look up at the mountains in the morning fog and know that this too shall pass. The cold will lift. The sun will return. And we will still be here, these remarkable mountain people, unshaken. Until next time, keep digging, keep believing, and keep each other warm.
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