Good job, Pagasa-DOST

After spending several weeks following the trail, track, or path of four low-pressure areas (LPAs) growing into storms and at least two becoming super typhoons, my daughter Hannah commented that "the Philippines seems to be in an abusive relationship with Mother Nature."

- CITO BELTRAN

I, on the other hand, am beginning to wonder if four typhoons in a row is just coincidence or is God trying to tell us something?

I really can't say, but with four typhoons one after the other, I definitely developed an appreciation as well as gratitude for the science and efforts of the PAGASA-DOST.

There was a time when storm tracking or weather forecasting used to be hit-or-miss calculations and unappreciated. But in these times of climate change and super typhoons, ignoring PAGASA and their warnings would be foolhardy. Perhaps it is about time that the agency PAGASA and the Department of Science and Technology got public and private sector recognition for the invaluable work they do.

In the case of the PAGASA-DOST, we should all start actively praising them, given the rise of pretenders on social media projecting themselves as "weather forecasters," "weather channels," or people who opine on the typhoons but lack common sense.

Many of us keep our eye on "the eye of the storm" or, as the saying goes, "on the hole instead of the doughnut." As a result, we are shocked when we get flooded by torrential rains. While anxiously watching the "possible track" of Typhoon Pepito, most of us were aware of its direction but did not "see" the cold winds pushing the typhoon that created variables.