The La Niña spawned rains swamping many areas in the country could be just a preview of what is yet to come in the next four months.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), large parts of the country would have a wet summer characterized by above-normal rainfall in March, April and May.

The weather bureau’s climatology and agrometeorology division even broke the bleaker news: weather models and advisories from observation centers across the globe forecast La Niña to stretch until May, with the peak occurring in February.

Pagasa said that La Niña, or a weather condition characterized by above average rains, arrived in the Philippines last October and has so far submerged coastal communities in parts of Australia.

Hitting the globe in cycles, the La Niña, Pagasa said, brings in “above-normal” rainfall incident similar to what happened in the Philippines in the summer months of 1998 when the entire country had one rainy summer.

The cycle is expected to repeat this year.