Largest and Most Intense Tropical Cyclone On Record Hits the Philippines

mrspoonsi writes "A monstrous storm has arisen in the Western Pacific. The storm, called 'Supter-Typhoon Haiyan', has become the year's most intense. It bore down on the central Philippines this morning, packing winds up to 195 mph (314 km/h), with gusts up to 235 mph (378 km/h), threatening massive damage and sending over 100,000 people into evacuation centers. (Animation of landfall.) Flood waters went as high as 10 feet. The secretary general of the Philippine National Red Cross said, 'About 90% of the infrastructure and establishments were heavily damaged.'"

Comments

Typhoons are ranked my pressure, not winds

[xmas2003]

From the article:

It's estimated central pressure is 899 mb but it could be lower. The lower the pressure the stronger the storm. Since 1987, there have been only four storms in the western Pacific with a central pressure below 899 mb (Megi in 2010, 885 mb; Flo in 1990 890 mb; Ruth in 1991 895 mb; and Yuri in 1991 895 mb)

Re:Typhoons are ranked my pressure, not winds

[JoeyRox]

There is a correlation between central pressure and wind speed but there are other factors affecting wind speed, such as the storm's mass (size) and wind mixing depths. This is why the NHC uses dropsondes rather than relying on pressure measurements or satellite estimates.

Re:Typhoons are ranked my pressure, not winds

[afidel]

There's only been ONE hurricane to ever make landfall in the US with that low a pressure, the 1935 labor day hurricane. To put the numbers in perspective Sandy made landfall at 945mb and Katrina at 920mb.

Re:Typhoons are ranked my pressure, not winds

[ShanghaiBill]

There's only been ONE hurricane to ever make landfall in the US with that low a pressure, the 1935 labor day hurricane.

Hurricanes (and typhoons) lose strength when they move over cooler water, so the strongest storms are those that stay in the tropics as they proceed westward. So the most intense Atlantic storms make landfall in Central America rather than the US coast. Wilma (2005) was the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded, at 882 mbar, and Gilbert was a close second at 882 mbar. Both made landfall in Central America.

Re:Typhoons are ranked my pressure, not winds

[Solandri]

Stepping back from the min/max recordkeeping for a bit, the size of the storm also makes a huge difference in the amount of damage it causes. Even if a storm is powerful, its impact may be minimal if it's small in size. From what I can tell from news reports, Haiyan is about half the diameter of the largest and strongest typhoon on record - Typhoon Tip. About 2200 km vs about 1200 km.

The diameter (extent of tropical storm-force winds) of hurricane Katrina was about 600 km, which is rather large for a storm. Hurricane Sandy (largest on record in the Atlantic) was about 1500 km across. I have to remind my European friends about this when they comment about the long recovery time from these storms for a "so-called" first-world nation. These storms were as large or larger than entire European countries - recovery efforts in an area that large are going to be slow even in a first-world country.

The rate of travel and rainfall amounts matter too. Hurricane Mitch was only a category 1 when it made landfall and a tropical storm or tropical depression most of its time over land, but it's the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record because it lingered for almost two weeks dropping torrential rain causing massive flooding and landslides.

Re:oh noes

[captainpanic]

I would say that a huge storm that can possibly make millions of people homeless, and kill thousands would definitely fit the description "stuff that matters".

Mobilize the Help Now

[b4upoo]

I imagine the suffering from this storm will be severe and can only hope that the help was mobilized before the storm struck. These storm victims are going to need everything to survive. Food, housing and medical care as well as tools and livestock to start over could save countless lives. Imagine a storm that severe striking Miami or New York.

Level 7 on modified Saffir scale

[peter303]

The Saffir scale tops out Level 5, > 157 mph. But each level increases about 20-25 mph. It is essentially a 500 mile wide tornado.

Re:Level 7 on modified Saffir scale

[Mashiki]

Living in Canada, in an area where there fiercest winds we have are 100 km/h

Really? Really? Come on man, I'm in Alberta right now and we see 120km/h and 130km/h gusts through the mountains, and we haven't even hit on tornado's, updrafts(favorite in southern ontario), microbursts, and those lovely unpredictable t-storms in the summer that spawn in the lakes, or prairies. We sure do see winds higher than 100km/h.

Re:Name

[captainpanic]

Haiyan is the name given to the super typhoon by the World Meteorological Organization (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24863480 )

What I understood is that the Philippines counts the number of storms that hit the country (this is the 25th this year!!), so in their counting, it gets a name with a Y. (Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/11/08/from-haiyan-to-yolanda-how-the-philippines-names-its-storms/ )

Largest and most intensive trop system since Charo

[JoeyRox]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charo

Tornado the size of a hurricane

[karchie]

I'm no meteorologist but those wind speeds would make this an F4 tornado. We get tornadoes here in the middle of North America, but they don't last for days. Good luck to everybody there.

Re:Manbearpig in 5...4...3...

[fermion]

Yes. Obama created this storm to destroy his Kenyan birth certificate that his mother secreted at an Indonesia Bank as it was foretold by a witch doctor before his birth that he would one day be president and it would be necessary to conspire to plant a fake birth certificate and an announcement in a Hawaii while securely deposited the real documents in a place far from the reach of the Fancy Haired One that would someday come searching for it. This not so farfetched. I have seen many claims that this supernatural powered president created Sandy to win the election. Two Sup(t)er Storms! How grand.

Re:oh noes

[GameboyRMH]

Yeah how dare they live where natural disasters could hit! They should be in one of the few regions in North America or Europe which have an unusually low number of natural disasters. Anywhere else and you might as well be sitting on god's shooting range like those crazy Japanese who nobody ever offers aid to due to their recklessness.

Some relief agencies

[cold fjord]

I'm sure that the relief agencies would be happy to take a donation. I think these are correct, but double check for yourself. I apologize for not including everybody, please don't let that stop you from making a donation.

American Red Cross
British Red Cross
Canadian Red Cross
Australian Red Cross
New Zealand Red Cross
Irish Red Cross
Deutsches Rotes Kreuz
Croix-Rouge Francaise
Röda Korset
Røde Kors
Røde Kors
Rode Kruis
Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz
Croce Rossa Italiana
Cruz Roja Española
Polski Czerwony Krzyz

Salvation Army donations

followup to recent 7.1 earthquake

[jcgam69]

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the PI a few weeks ago which cause widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. Bridges collapsed and many roads are still impassible. The earthquake and hundreds of strong aftershocks serve to intensify the effects of this storm.

Re:Manbearpig in 5...4...3...

[ColdWetDog]

Interesting,eh? This is when Slashdot moderation gets scary.

Re:Not for anything

[Anonymous Coward]

Just hope the red light cameras get knocked out first. I'd hate to see the ticket when my car gets blown through a red light when moving near 200MPH!

Re:oh noes

[westlake]

Yeah how dare they live where natural disasters could hit! They should be in one of the few regions in North America or Europe which have an unusually low number of natural disasters.

People tend to live in places which have some unique economic advantage: fertile ground, a navigable river or deep water port. The miner will be looking for mountain-building, the rancher, grasslands on which to raise cattle. To get what you want you can't always play it safe.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:oh noes

[OneAhead]

Wilma had wind speeds of 240 km/h at the time it made landfall in Mexico. Haiyan had wind speeds of 315 km/h when it made landfall (highest wind at landfall ever recorded). Knowing that structural stress on buildings goes approximately with the square of the wind speed (kinetic energy and things), that's almost twice as powerful. Many general aviation airplanes (for example the cessna 172) have "never exceed speeds" that are lower than 315 km/h; in other words, if you make a dive and reach that kind of speed, you're at risk of your airplane disintegrating. I have strong doubts about the economic feasibility of building houses that can reliably withstand such wind speeds, especially in poorer countries. It's like trying to mount a house on top of a (non-American) high-speed train and take it to top speed.