The state weather bureau on Sunday urged the public to monitor updates on a "very strong" typhoon off the country's Pacific coast.

Typhoon Wutip was 1,815 kilometers off Visayas, packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour and 225 kph gusts, PAGASA said in a 4 a.m. advisory.

The weather disturbance for now is unlikely to enter the Philippine area of responsibility, but its initial forecast track may still change, said PAGASA weather specialist Gener Quitlong.

Wutip, he added, is not yet poised to become a supertyphoon.

"May mino-monitor po tayong isang napakalakas na bagyo... bagama't sa ngayon hindi pa naman natin nakikitang aabot ng supertyphoon ito," he told radio DZMM.

(We are monitoring a very strong storm although we don't see yet that it will intensify into a supertyphoon.)

PAGASA categorizes a weather system with maximum sustained winds of 220 kph as a supertyphoon.

Wutip and its outer rains bands were still too far to affect the country, said Quitlong.

The amihan or northeast monsoon will lower temperatures across the country on Sunday morning. Humid weather, however, may be experienced in the afternoon, with temperatures possibly reaching 31 to 33 degrees Celsius in some Visayas and Mindanao areas, he said.

PAGASA may declare the end of the amihan season in the first or second week of March, Quitlong said.