Have you experienced a typhoon? If so, what was it like?

Tropical Cyclone GAFILO Photo courtesy of NOAA

Typhoons

The strong rotating storms called typhoons in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline and tropical cyclones in the Southwest Indian Ocean are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, and the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E. They are called severe tropical cyclones in the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E, and severe cyclonic storms in the North Indian Ocean. The general term for all of them is cyclones. Storms are only upgraded to typhoon (etc.) status if they sustain wind speeds above 73mph (118 kph, 64 kt, force 12 on the Beaufort Scale). Typhoons are formed in the same way as hurricanes.

The Northwest Pacific basin covers the part of the ocean from the international dateline to Asia, and it includes the South China Sea. Forecasting for this area is shared between China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. The record season for the region was in 1971, when there were 24 typhoons. Last year was the worst typhoon year on record for Japan. Whilst the storms hit China, Taiwan and the Korean peninsula too, Asia as a whole did not get more than usual. Most missed the Philippines, which normally gets 17 to 20 typhoons per year, and Hong Kong's 3 tropical cyclones was fewer than average.

The list of names used for storms in the Western North Pacific in recent years was generated by 14 nations supplying 10 names each. The most recent and upcoming names are: Rananin, Malakas, Megi, Chaba, Aere, Songda, Sarika, Haima, Meari, Ma-on, Tokage, Nock-ten, Muifa, Merbok, Nanmadol, Talas, Noru, Kulap, Roke, Sonca, Nesat, Haitang, Nalgae, Banyan, Washi, Matsa, Sanvu, Mawar, Guchol, Talim, Nabi, Khanun, Vicete, and Saola.

One of the reasons given for the amount of death and destruction caused by typhoons is that there has been a lot of logging, legal and illegal, which has reduced the stability of slopes and led to faster run-off and to mudslides. After a serious of particularly damaging storms and typhoons towards the end of last year, President Arroyo of the Philippines said, "I'm canceling all (logging) permits here and suspending issuance of all others."

A typhoon that reaches sustained wind speeds of 150 mph (241 km/hr) is called a super typhoon; it is the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane (155 mph or 249 km/hr) or a very strong category 4. Super typhoons are more common that category 5 hurricanes.

Taiwan braces for typhoon, markets shut Monday

Typhoon Haitang was due to hit Taiwan on Sunday. Schools, markets and businesses will be closed on Monday. Typhoon Haitang had weakened from a category 5 to a category 4.

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Have you experienced a typhoon? If so, what was it like?

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