Manila: Tropical storm “Egay” dumped moderate to heavy rains over Metro Manila and several regions on Monday, prompting school authorities to suspend classes in some areas.

Although the weather disturbance, the fifth major one to pass through the country this year, did not directly hit the Philippine landmass, it enhanced the southwest monsoon, bringing rains over parts of the main northern island of Luzon and the Western Visayas region, Chris Perez senior weather specialist of the state weather bureau, PAGASA, said.

“Egay was carrying maximum winds of up to 45km/h at the centre and gustiness of up to 60km/h,” Perez said adding that the tropical depression and its effect on the southwest monsoon is expected to affect the country until Tuesday.

As of 11am on Monday, the Batanes and Babuyan Group of Islands in the Philippines’ extreme northern Luzon were under tropical cyclone warning signal No. 1.

Perez said while the weather disturbance was initially seen moving in a northern direction at 30 kilometres per hour, however, it now appears that is almost stationary.

“We expect Egay’s effects to diminish by Tuesday afternoon, however, rains brought in by the southwest monsoon will continue to affect the country,” Perez said.

Due to the foul weather and presence of flooding in certain areas, authorities have suspended classes up to high school in several cities in Metro Manila, particularly, Quezon City, Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Manaluyong, as well as Manila.

In Bulacan, rains and effects of high tide caused flooding in Meycauayan and Marilao as some roads are not passable to light vehicles.

Egay also affected flight schedules from Manila to Cebu.

But while the rains affected schools and caused inconvenience to some, experts welcomed them, saying this would improve the situation in dams providing water to Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and surrounding environs.

Days of rains had improved the water level at the Angat Dam although it is still operating just slightly above its critical level of 160 metres as of Monday.

Metro Manila water concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water, had been observing rotational service interruption over the past few days lasting from 8 to 16 hours because of the water shortage.

According to Perez, they expect three more strong weather disturbances to visit the country this month.