Tag: Storm Surge

Elsewhere in Weather News: December 6th, 2014

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Super Typhoon Hagupit Heads towards the Philippines

The Philippines are bracing for a very strong typhoon that is expected to make landfall this weekend. Hagupit, which was formerly known as a super typhoon (with winds exceeding 240km/h) has lowered in intensity but is still considered dangerous. The slight weakening was due to an eye wall replacement that took place. As of Friday afternoon, the typhoon was located in the West Pacific and heading west towards the central islands as well as the main islands where Manila is located.

This region has seen numerous strong typhoons in the last five years including super typhoon Haiyan, which made landfall in the Philippines 13 months ago just south of where Hagupit is expected to make landfall.

Hagupit looking more ragged as it approaches the Philippines after the eye wall replacement, however the bigger eye signifies a larger wind field. (Source: NOAA)
Hagupit looking more ragged as it approaches the Philippines after the eye wall replacement, however the bigger eye signifies a larger wind field. (Source: NOAA)

Yesterday, Hagupit had already begun lashing the islands with its outer rain bands. Evacuations were underway this past week where around 500,000 people have already been evacuated from areas most at risk including along small coastal fishing villages and in unsafe structures. The typhoon is expected to make landfall tonight near Sorsogon City, and will likely reach a high end category three or low end category four equivalent storm, bearing sustained winds of around 200km/h. Storm surges are sure to be a problem, especially along the front right quadrant of the typhoon, where surges could exceed 10 feet. Rainfall will also be of concern since Hagupit is fairly slow moving and will be able to drop copious amounts of rain. It is expected that the hardest hit areas, around where Hagupit makes landfall, could see around 500mm of rainfall.

After Hagupit emerges back over waters, the waters of the South China Sea, it is unclear as to where it will go and what its strength will be. A few of the forecast models show it holding together and continuing straight west with at least tropical storm force winds but sea-surface temperatures are not ideal for intensification in the region.

Elsewhere in Weather News: November 3rd, 2012

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Superstorm Sandy

Since last week’s report on Hurricane Sandy, the storm system made landfall in New Jersey and caused damage that will take months to repair. Just prior to making landfall, Sandy transitioned into an extratropical storm. Hurricane-force winds were still experienced just off the Jersey coast and tropical storm-force winds spanned an incredible 1520km. The storm surge associated with Sandy was the most devastating aspect of the storm as areas along the coast suffered from severe flooding, including Manhattan. At The Battery in New York, the storm surge of 13.88 feet shattered previous records by over two feet. The worst case scenario played out as high tide came in at the same time storm surge was maximized. Sandy also disabled power to over 8.9 million residents on the east coast shortly after it made landfall, and 1.2 million of those are still missing power as of Friday night.

Newark subway flooding

Chilling image as the water poured into the subway in Newark, New Jersey.(Source: @TropicalTidbits)

Sandy

Eight feet of sand cover streets in Cape May, brought in by storm surge. (Source: @AliBurnett)

The hardest hit areas appear to be Staten Island where major flooding occurred and houses for streets on-end were completely flooded and inhabitable. In Breezy Point, New York, a large blaze broke out due to downed power lines that were toppled over from the tropical storm-force winds blowing so fiercely; this resulted in 80 houses burnt down to the ground. In the nearby state of New Jersey, towns along the New Jersey Shore were inundated by water and whole amusement parks could be seen partly submerged.

On the backside of Sandy it was a different story, where in West Virginia it was not rain or storm surge that caused damage, it was the snow. After Sandy moved further north-eastward and snow moved out of the region, it was not uncommon to see 60cm of snow and up to 91cm in some areas, as reported in Richwood, West Virginia.

Sandy snow

Snow depth analysis (some areas of 30-40 inches!) done by the National Weather Service. (Source: NWS)

Although it is still very early in the clean-up, damages are expected to be in the tens of billions – one of the worst storms for the Northeast, ever. The death toll has also risen significantly in the last couple of days, where the tally has reached 109 in the US alone, and 175 across the US and Caribbean combined.

The clean-up will continue to be a chilly one for those without power as temperature highs will only be reaching single digits in the states that were hit the hardest.