Tag: Typhoon

Elsewhere in Weather News: August 4th, 2012

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Another Typhoon Churns in the Pacific

Yet another typhoon, Saola, has made landfall in the Western Pacific this past week, this time hitting Taiwan hard. The “disturbed area” talked about in last week’s EIWN is the culprit for producing typhoon Saola, which made landfall Wednesday, August 1st (Thursday August 2nd Taiwan time), bore winds of around 155km/h. The capital city of Taipei was completely shut down because of this typhoon: financial markets were closed, all businesses were closed, and residents urged to stay inside.

Saola

Typhoon Saola just as the strongest part of the storm made landfall on Taiwan (taken August 1, 2:32pm). (Source: NEXSAT Satellite)

Saola swamped streets and downed large trees as it passed over Taiwan, not to mention the enormous amounts of rain it dumped. Since Tuesday, some areas of Taiwan have received more than 1,000mm of rainfall – that’s about double our yearly amounts here in Winnipeg! The death toll from the extreme flooding Saola caused has reached 27, mostly Taiwan and Philippine residents. The flood waters are still receding and in turn more casualties may be discovered. Taiwan has deployed 48,000 soldiers to the area to help with the cleanup of Taipei and surrounding regions, and rescue teams are also currently hard at work. The typhoon has disrupted flights going in and out of Taiwan and caused chaos in the railway industry.

Flooding

Snapshot of the flooding Saola caused in Taiwan. (Source: AFP)

Unfortunately, typhoons don’t seem to be letting up in this already battered region of the Pacific where yet another typhoon has spawned east of China and will make landfall somewhere north of Shanghai. Saola will continue west and is predicted to make a second landfall west of Taiwan on China’s south-east coast on Friday (Winnipeg time).

Typhoons

The tracks of typhoon Saola/Damray as of Thursday evening. (Source: HKO)

In other hurricane-related news (Atlantic basin), a tropical storm, Ernesto, has spawned in the Atlantic eyeing to the Carribean where it will dump massive amounts of rain on the Lesser Antillies. Early Thursday morning a 101km/h gust was recorded at St Lucia where a tropical storm warning has been issued for the Lesser Antillies and residents have bunkered down. Ernesto is expected to make a north northwesterly track and most models show it ending up in the southern Gulf of Mexico by early next week. However, that is still a ways away and hurricanes can sometimes make unpredictable turns, in consequence, a constant eye needs to be kept on the most current satellite and model data.

Elsewhere in Weather News: July 28th, 2012

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Severe Typhoon Vicente Plows through Southern Asia

This past week, typhoon Vicente spun up in the Pacific Ocean and made landfall near Hong Kong on July 23rd. The severe typhoon, of category 2 hurricane strength, amassed winds of between 155km/h just before it made landfall about 100 kilometres to the south-west of Hong Kong’s city core. Although the typhoon first touched land outside of Hong Kong, its hurricane-force winds did extend out into the city. In consequence, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) issued a level 10 advisory – the highest possible on the scale – advising residents to stay inside and closing non-essential services as well as schools. The level 10 advisory had only occurred 13 times since 1946, with this most recent advisory being the first in the 21st century (the last level 10 advisory was issued in 1999). Vicente had somewhat of an unusual track, being stationary 300 kilometres to the south of Hong Kong for 15 hours then strengthening significantly before moving inland the following day. The strengthening that occurred with Vicente, within this short amount of time (48h), had never been observed this close to land with prior significant typhoons that struck the region.

Vicente

RADAR image of Vicente as he made landfall on the afternoon of July 23rd. (Source: HKO)

Although Vicente forced the HKO to issue a level 10 advisory, damage was fairly minimal in the city – only minor damage to buildings was reported, but no structural damage. Flights in and out of Hong Kong were either cancelled or delayed which did cause some grief to travellers in the region.

Vicente did not stop its tracks in Hong Kong. It continued westward towards Southern China and Northern Vietnam where it dumped large amounts of rain during its passage. This in turn caused landslides and flooding in the mountainous region of Northern Vietnam, killing seven people with three still missing. The Vietnamese government has sent out rescue teams to look for the residents still missing. Damage is quite significant in the region, with most houses and crops destroyed due to the flash flooding and landslides.

Vicente Track

Red line depicting Vicente’s track, green circle are the areas of Vietnam affected by the flooding and purple circle is the area where Vicente intensified quickly. (Map credit: Google Maps)

Another tropical depression appears to be forming to the east of the Philippines with some thunderstorm activity, which is something to keep an eye on in the coming week!

Tropical disturbance

The tropical disturbance east of the Philippines. (Source: HKO)

Elsewhere in Weather News: June 23rd, 2012

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Typhoons and Hurricanes Spin Up in Northern Hemisphere

Mother Nature has been very busy world-wide, wreaking havoc of all forms this past week. The Deluth floods, tornadoes in South Dakota, and as reported in today’s EIWN post—typhoons and hurricanes have spun up in the North-West Pacific and North Atlantic basins.

This past Sunday, June 17th, typhoon Guchol (known as Butchoy by the Philippines) gave a scare to the Philippine islands’ residents as it scooted a couple hundred kilometers to the east of the islands while racing northwards. Minor storm surge and the outer spiral bands of Guchol brought heavy rains and flash floods to the area. Making matters worse was the fact that the monsoon winds were occurring, feeding warm, moist, air from the equator. The streets in Manila were flooded requiring people to walk through waist-high water to reach their destination. Landslides caused by the heavy rains were also reported in the region. The eye of the typhoon didn’t hit land in Manila however; it kept roaring in a northerly fashion towards Japan where it finally made landfall on Tuesday. Intense winds were recorded above 200km/h near the eye of the storm. Flash-flood conditions existed in areas where the typhoon made landfall and near the core, through the more mountainous regions of Japan. About 80 people had injuries relating to the storm and one person died when his house was torn apart by the vicious winds. Since then, Guchol has been downgraded to an extratropical storm and has weakened significantly as it’s path continues over land and it moves away from the warm sea surface temperatures that gave it it’s energy.

Manila flooding

Streets of Manila completely underwater. (Source: Ted Aljibe/RT)

Guchol

Image of Guchol racing towards Japan in the North-West Pacific Ocean. (Source: NASA)

Meanwhile, in the North Atlantic, the third-named storm of the year, Hurricane Chris, formed far off to the south-east of Newfoundland, in the middle of the North Atlantic but poses no threat to land. This hurricane is only the second most northerly hurricane in the history of record keeping. It managed to form in the 22°C waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, bringing us to wonder whether it developed due to global warming or is just a glimpse the planet’s extremes?

Later this weekend various models are hinting at a tropical storm forming in the southern half of the Gulf of Mexico. Other than that, models are in disagreement and all over the place regarding which way future “Debby” will be heading.

Debby

NAM’s projection of where Debby will be Sunday morning. (Source: TwisterData/AWM Model Viewer)