The variations of the thermometer rarely exceed 10° of Reaumur, the maximum heat being from 28° to 29°, the minimum 18° to 19°. Winter garments are scarcely ever required.
The difference between the longest and shortest day is 1h. 47m. 12s. On the 20th June, in Manila, the sun rises at 5h. 33m. 12s., and sets at 6h. 26m. 48s.; on the 20th December, it rises at 6h. 26m. 48s., and sets at 5h. 33m. 12s.
The minimum fall of rain in Manila is 84 inches, the maximum 114. Hailstorms are rare. There is no mountain sufficiently high to be "snow-capped;" the highest, Banaho, is between 6,000 and 7,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Like other tropical climates, the Philippines are visited by the usual calamities gathered by the wild elements round that line which is deemed the girdle of the world. Violent hurricanes produce fearful devastations; typhoons cover the coasts with wrecks; inundations of rivers and excessive rains destroy the earth's produce, while long-continued droughts are equally fatal to the labours and the hopes of husbandry. Earthquakes shake the land, overturn the strongest edifices and sport destructively with the power of man; volcanic mountains inundate the earth with their torrents of burning lava. Clouds of locusts sometimes devour all that is green upon the surface of the ground; and epidemic diseases carry away multitudes of the human race. The ravages caused by accidental fires are often most calamitous, as the greater part of the houses are constructed of inflammable materials. When such a disaster occurs, it spreads with wonderful rapidity, and, there being no adequate means of extinction, a whole population is often rendered houseless.
During the change of the monsoons especially, the storms are often terrific, accompanied by very violent rains, fierce lightning and loud thunder. If in the night, the darkness thickens. Many lose their lives by lightning strokes, and houses are frequently carried away by the vehemence of the torrents.
Bagyo is the Indian name for hurricane. These violent outbreaks are generally announced in the morning by a light smoky mist which appears on the mountains; it gathers, and darkens, and thickens into heavy clouds, and before day closes breaks out with its fearful and destroying violence, raging from an hour and a half to two hours. M. de Gentil says that in the torrid zone the clouds which bring the most destructive tornadoes are at an elevation not exceeding 400 toises of perpendicular height.