By Rio N. Araja

WEATHERMEN are predicting it will get colder today and tomorrow in Baguio City, even as yesterday?s early-morning chill broke a 23-year-old record for the city?s lowest recorded temperature.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said the temperature plummeted to 7.5 degrees Celsius at 5 a.m. yesterday, the coldest since 1986.

The bureau has forecast a temperature range of between 6 and 22 degrees for Baguio today and tomorrow, but said residents and visitors to the mountaintop city may expect the minimum temperature to creep up to 8 degrees by Sunday, Jan. 18.

By comparison, the bureau said Metro Manila?s forecast temperature for the next four days would range from 18 to 29 degrees, while Tagaytay City residents and visitors may expect temperatures between 15 and 27 degrees from Jan. 16 to 19.

Lucresio About, the bureau?s senior weather specialist, said Thursday?s minimum temperature of 7.5 degrees was more than a degree warmer than the coldest recorded Baguio temperature?6.3 degrees Celsius on Jan. 18, 1961.

The normal minimum temperature year-round in Baguio City is 18 degrees.

He said the ?fresh and cool air? coming from countries experiencing winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere was responsible for the low temperatures in Baguio, Luzon including Metro Manila, and the western and central sections of the Visayas.

About said 7.5 degrees was the lowest temperature recorded in Baguio since 1986, when the mercury dipped to 6.8 degrees on Jan. 8 of that year.

The city?s temperature dipped to 6.7 degrees on Feb. 28, 1963, the lowest on record. It registered 7.1 degrees in 1971.

About said that cool and gusty winds may generate storm surges.

?The stronger the winds are, the bigger the waves are off the seas,? he told Standard Today.

He said the Visayas and Mindanao were being affected by the tail of a cold front.

?Strong winds in Mindanao are caused by the cold front,? he said.

Yesterday?s minimum and maximum temperatures in Metro Manila were 18 and 29 degrees, respectively.