PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Geographic Location

The Municipality of Magsingal is the fourth northernmost town of Ilocos Sur Province in Region I. It lies within 120⁰ 20^’ to 20⁰ 34^’ east longitude and 17^o 40’ to 17^o 44’ north latitude.

It is bounded on the south by Sto. Domingo, on the north by San Juan and part of Ilocos Norte, on the east by Abra and on the west by South China Sea.

The municipality is traversed by the Manila North Road. It is 13 kilometers north of the capital city of Vigan, approximately 420 kilometers north of Manila; 150 kilometers north of San Fernando City, La Union; and 68 kilometers south of Laoag City. It can be reached by land transportation like bus, jeepneys, cars and other vehicles, and also by using water boat or shipping vessel.

•  Land Area Classification

Magsingal has a land area of 8, 500 hectares as per records of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. About three (3) percent only of this area comprises the Urban Barangay, while the rest comprises the Rural Barangays. Barangay Maratudo has the largest area while Barangay San Julian has the smallest. Alienable and disposable lands has an aggregate land area of 8,290 hectares or 97.53 percent of the total land area of the municipality. The rest of the area is forest land.

• Climate

The municipality like any other municipalities of the region has a distinct wet and dry season. Rain starts at the later part of May and usually ends in October. It is during this period when the basic staple food , rice, is planted. Rainfalls precipitated by the northwest monsoon and occasionally augmented by typhoons are present during these months.

Climate is generally warm. Humidity comes in advent of the rainy season. Relative humidity has its highest in August and lowest in April. Temperature range from 27.3^oC and reaches as high as 30^oC during summer in April. The mean temperature is 26.59^oC. It rises to as high as 33.8^oC in April and downs as low as 22.5^oC in December. Monthly average number of rainy days is 13. The average rainfall is 278.18 while relative humidity is 87.3 percent.