While the Atlantic hurricane season may have taken its last breath, that is certainly not the case in the western Pacific Ocean. The most powerful tropical cyclone of 2013 anywhere on Earth is raging toward the Philippines.
As of Wednesday night (U.S. time), Super Typhoon Haiyan had top sustained winds near 175 mph (equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. A typhoon is considered a super typhoon when maximum wind speeds exceed 150 mph.
The Japan Meteorological Agency estimated the typhoon's minimum pressure at 905 millibars. If such a storm were in the Atlantic basin it would beamong the strongest on record, but the Western Pacific basin is less of a stranger to typhoons of this intensity.
Super Typhoon Haiyan will continue to move westward away from the Republic of Palau on Thursday local time. Winds gusted as high as 77 mph at the National Weather Service office in Palau early Thursday morning.
Haiyan's forecast west-northwest track will put it on a collision course with the Philippines, with external rainbands lashing the nation as early as Thursday. The Philippine weather agency, PAGASA, has named the approaching typhoon Yolanda using its own separate naming list.
According to the latest forecast from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (shown in the second graphic at right), Haiyan is expected to remain a super typhoon as it approaches the central Philippines early Friday, local time (Thursday night, U.S. time).
Given this more southern track than previous tropical cyclones this season, the Philippine capital of Manila – home to roughly 12 million people in the metro area – could see significant rain and wind impacts from Haiyan Friday night or early Saturday local time (Friday, U.S. time).
Additionally, some 10 million people who live on the central Philippine islands are most at risk of a direct strike from Haiyan.
Furthermore, another tropical cyclone (T.D. 30W) has already soaked parts of the central Philippines. Any additional rain from Haiyan will fall over saturated ground in the central Philippines, raising the threat of flooding and mudslides.
Haiyan is then expected to sweep quickly into Vietnam by Sunday, possibly still as a strong typhoon.
According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, the Philippines are hit by six or seven tropical cyclones in an average year.
In October, Typhoon Nari flooded farmlands and destroyed thousands of homes north of Manila.
Heavy rainbands on the southern edge of Typhoon Trami flooded Manila in August, claiming at least 18 lives and chasing over one quarter million from their homes. This occurred just over a week after Typhoon Utor slammed into the northern Philippines.
Roughly 30 percent of the average annual rainfall in the northern Philippines is believed to be from tropical cyclones, according to a 2008 satellite study.
Haiyan is the Chinese word for petrel, a type of bird that lives over the open sea and returns to land only for breeding. Haiyan is the 28th named storm of the 2013 Western Pacific typhoon season.
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