Worst Hurricane Of The Year Just Hit The United States

The island of Titian completely swallowed up within the eye of
Typhoon Yutu last week. 

You might not have seen it on the news, but the worst hurricane of the year just hit the United States this week.  

Usually, there's wall-to-wall media coverage of such a thing, as we saw with Hurricanes Michael and Florence.

But this worst-case hurricane that I'm talking about was a typhoon that hit the northern Mariana Islands, particularly Saipan and Titian last week. These islands are American territory.

Peak winds of Typhoon Yutu were an astonishing 180 mph as the storm swept over Saipan. Compare that to what I though was the incredible 150 mph or so winds in Michael, and you really have something.

As you can imagine, the devastation is pretty complete. One death has been reported so far. It will take months, probably, to restore power.  There's quite a video at the bottom of this post.

Because the Mariana Islands are prone to typhoons, building codes there are very tough. Even so, houses were no match for such incredible winds. Most buildings there are damaged. FEMA is on its way with food and water, the Weather Channel reports.

There was a witness account in the Category 6 weather blog, illustrating what such strong winds can do, even making water infiltrate sturdy buildings:

"My fourth floor north-facing window and door flooded my place badly. Streaming in from the air conditioner, my door, perculating in from my aluminum windowsill. Even my empty hole in the wale from a removed power outlet! My air conditioner nearly blew inside my rood, shoved THAT violently by 120+ mph winds. From 3 to 6 a.m. were the worst. The interior walls...pulsed, is the word I'd use. I put my fingertips on the wall, and it was like the plaster walls were "breathing."

Images and video showed homes torn apart and cars blown around like toys. By the way, Typhoon Yutu is tied for the strongest tropical storm for 2018.

Wreckage after Typhoon Yutu in the Mariana Islands. 

Typhoon Yutu is still out there and still a beast. It is heading toward the island of Luzon in the Philippines, which is that nation's most populous island. The typhoon should largely miss the metropolis of Manila.

Yutu currently has top winds of 150 mph. Those winds might weaken some by the time it hits the Philippines, but wind, incredible rains and landslides are all coming to parts of Luzon.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Hurricane Walaka wiped a small, remote Hawaiian island off the map, according to The Guardian. 

East Island was an 11-acre in the French Frigate Shoals, a big, huge protected marine environmental protection agency northwest of the main Hawaii Islands.

The island had probably been there for 1,000 or 2,000 years. Scientists had just begun studying the island as part of climate change research and now it's gone. Some would say because of climate change (rising sea levels and the risk of stronger hurricanes.)

The island had been an important habitat for Hawaiian monk seals and sea turtles, according to the Guardian, so there is a real environmental loss or at least risk here.

By the way, there is a late season semi-surprise out in the central Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Storm Oscar formed out there in recent days and is expected to turn into a  hurricane soon. It poses no real threat to land.

Here's that video of Typhoon Yutu

Flooding Caused Havoc In Many Areas Over The Weekend

It seemed like the theme in weather news the past several days has shifted a bit from heat to flood.

Severe flooding striking India in recent days. 

Sure, heat waves are going on at a brisk pace, if I dare use the word "brisk." Here in Vermont, Burlington on Sunday had its 25th consecutive day of 80 degree weather, which ties the record for the longest such spell.

It's likely to reach 80 degrees in Burlington today.

It got cloudy in Vermont Sunday, sort of a side effect of that aforementioned flooding. Those were the outer clouds of storms that caused flooding in parts of southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic states Sunday.

I'll get to that in a moment, but I should lead with flooding that was worse and deadlier than anything that happened in the United States.

Monsoon flooding happens most years in India, but at least in one section of that nation, the flooding in recent days was described as "unprecedented."

At least 37 people died and about 40,000 people were evacuated from the tourist area called the Malabar Coast, reports CNN.

Elsewhere, severe flooding also hit the Philippines. One viral video shows a wedding NOT canceled in a flooded church as the bride and her family waded through the murky water to the alter. The show must go on.

In Texas, eight or nine inches of rain fell in just three hours west of San Antonio. More than two dozen people had to be rescued via helicopter. No serious injuries were reported.

Mud on this car shows how high the water got in Little Falls, New Jersey.
Photo by Amy Newman. 

In Massachusetts, a torrential storm flooded some areas.

The hardest hit area was around Lynn, where a thunderstorm stalled Sunday, dumping eight inches of rain on that community. Many if not most streets in Lynn were closed by high water and many homes flooded.

In New Jersey, where yesterday I showed you that viral video of cars floating down a river, flood damage in some areas was the worst since Hurricane Floyd in 1999, says NorthJersey.com

The inside of some houses in Little Falls were flooded to a depth of up to four feet. In Bogota, New Jersey, a bride in her wedding dress and the groom were rescued from a flooded car. Seems like the flooding liked to attack weddings. I see a theme going on in this report.

The flooding goes on. Flash flooding was ongoing this morning in eastern Pennsylvania and, again, New Jersey. The heavy rain is expected to go on all day, and the flooding will become more widespread.

Here in Vermont, it looks like there will be increasing areas of rain as we get into Tuesday and Tuesday night. Some of the rain might be heavy in some spots in the Green Mountain State, but no widespread flooding is in the forecast.

Philippines Typhoon Kills Up To 240 People

Destruction from Typhoon Tembin in the Philippines
 this past week. 

While we're shivering our timbers in the Northeast U.S., the nearly never-ending typhoon season in the western Pacific continues onward. (This is normal, they get occasional typhoons for much of the year.)

Unlike the very destructive Atlantic hurricane season the tropical storm and typhoon season in the western Pacific was relatively tame in 2017, especially compared to recent years.

However, a tropical storm that later became a minimal typhoon named Tembin caused a terrible, deadly disaster over Christmas weekend in the Philippines. This storm's deadly punch came in the form of torretial rains that triggered flash floods and mudslides, killing somewhere between 160 and 250 people in the southern part of the nation.  (There is still some confusion on the number.)

Typhoon Tembin capped a terribly tragic Christmas season in the Philippines. Another typhoon killed 50 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000 or so homes in the central part of the nation a little over a week ago. Another storm sank a ferry this month to the northeast, killing five people. And in another tragedy not related to the weather, a shopping mall and office building fire claimed at least 37 lives. 

Typhoon Tembin threatened Vietnam, forcing evacuations there, but the typhoon dramatically weakened and ultimately steered clear of Vietnam, so it caused little damage and no injuries there.

According to the Category 6 weather blog, another typhoon might form in the western Pacific over the next couple of days and threaten the Philippines by around New Year's Day.

Philippines Reeling From Rare Christmas Typhoon

Typhoon Nock-Ten approaching the Philippines early
on Christmas Day with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph

As much of the northern half of the United States was being buffeted by strong winds during the Christmas holiday, a much more serious tempest hit the Philippines.

A typhoon named Nock-Ten swept across the nation with winds of up to 150 mph or even more, causing lots of damage, evacuations and other big problems there.

The storm weakened as it crossed the Philippines, but still had sustained winds of 115 mph as it moved over more populated areas of the nation

Typhoons are common in and around the Philippines, but ones this strong this late in the season are quite rare.

In fact, this was the strongest landfalling typhoon for so late in the season in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, says Jeff Masters at Weather Underground. (Two other past typhoons that didn't strike land were a bit stronger.)

This was the third time in modern history a typhoon has hit the Philippines on Christmas, but this one was the strongest of those.

The Philippine Star said at least four people died in the storm and at least eight others were missing.

Strange Destruction Continues: Tornado In Downtown Manilla, The Philippines

A tornado struck Sunday in Manilla, the Philippines.  

As if the extreme weather in the United States wasn't enough (epic, spreading floods and intense heat and humidity,) we get news from Manilla, the Philippines of a tornado smashing pretty much right through downtown.

Early reports indicate at least five died and many were injured either in the tornado or the severe flooding that accompanied the storm.

Following are videos of the Manilla twister:

View from a high rise building:



Here's quite a close view, right before the twister heads downtown:

As

Now Its Phillippines Turn To Get Incredible Rains

Dangerous Typhoon Koppu approaching the
Phillippines on Friday. 

It seems like every day, there's a new spot on the globe that gets unprecedented rains.

Earlier this month it was South Carolina, which got nearly two feet of rain in what was described as a "1,000 year flood."

Thursday and Friday, it was parts of southern California, where localized intense storms led to epic floods and mudslides that trapped probably a few hundred people in their cars and blocked a piece of Interstate 5.

Next in the news, you'll be hearing about the Phillippines and their bout with incredible rains.

Typhoon Koppu has arrived on the main northern island of Luzon. It made landfall packing 140 mph winds.

Yes, yes, I know, the Phillippines gets a typhoon seemingly every five minutes so why is this news?

It's because Koppu is strong, and is basically going to stall for a couple days around the northern Phillippines. That will unleash literally feet of rain, and everybody who knows anything about Phillippines weather knows there's going to be a terrible flood.

Actually, it's already started but it will keep getting worse over the next couple of days. It's over land, so the winds are rapidly weakening. But as is the case with most landfalling tropical systems, the rain is still cranking, big time.

Also, Koppu is moving very, very slowly, so it's going to sit and spin over Luzon for a few days, all the while dropping incredible amounts of rain.

One computer model I saw spits out 98 inches of rain in one spot in the Phillippines. That's over eight feet of rain!

 I seriously doubt they'll get anywhere near that amount, but for a computer model to even suggest that is something.

Typhoon Koppu striking the Philippines Saturday. 

I still wouldn't be surprised if three or four feet of rain falls in one or two locations in Luzon.

Government officials told the at least 6 million people in the storm's path to be ready to evacuate. The Phillippine military has also been deployed to northern Luzon to be ready for this monster.

No detailed word yet on casualties and damage so far, but BBC reports rescue workers spotting at least two bodies floating in flood waters.

I'm sure we will be hearing more about the destruction in the Philippines as one disaster after another seems to strike.

There's already a few videos coming out showing the increasing floods in Luzon. Here's one:

Philippines Face ANOTHER Typhoon Disaster

Very strong Typhoon Hagupit is threatening
the Philippines.  

A little over a year ago, Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, killing more than 7,000 people and leaving 4 million others homeless or with damaged houses.

Now, another typhoon, almost as strong, named Hagupit, is about to cause another disaster in the Philippines.

Hagupit developed explosively yesterday, and could hit the Philippines as a Category 4 or 5 storm with sustained winds of at least 140 or 150 mph.

East of the Philippines this morning, sustained winds with Hagupit are estimated at a little under 180 mph. It's a Category 5 monster at the moment.

Typhoons (we know these kinds of storms as hurricanes in the United States) thrive on warm water. The warmer the water, and the deeper the water is in the ocean, the more likely a typhoon or hurricane will get stronger, and stay strong.

Last year's Haiyan moved over extremely warm water that extended to an usual depth down into the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines. That allowed Haiyan to strengthen into one of the strongest tropical systems ever recorded.

This time, as Dr. Jeff Masters notes, the water is not quite as warm, and doesn't extend as deep as it did last year east of the Philippines. So probably Hagupit won't be quite as strong, and might not maintain its strength like typhoon that caused such a disaster last year.

Still, Hagupit is extremely powerful, and turned out to be stronger than most forecasters thought.
It is forecast to be a Category 4 storm at landfall in the Philippines on Saturday with winds, as I said, that could clock in at 150 mph.

Extremely heavy rain, mudslides, storm surges and floods are also a good bet.

The city of Tacloban was the hardest hit population center when Haiyan slammed into the country last year. The city is pretty close to where Hagupit will probably make landfall.  Hagupit might not end up scoring a direct hit on Tacloban, but people there are taking no chances.

People are being evacuated, residents have already raided the supermarkets to stock up on food and supplies, and they're hunkering down.

The Philippines get hit by typhoons all the time, but in recent years, they've tended to be stronger, and more have hit the southern part of the country. Usually, it's the north that gets most of them.

I hate to keep bringing this up, but I have to wonder if global warming is making things worse for the Philippines. As I noted, hurricanes and typhoons thrive on warm ocean water, the hotter the better, at least from the typhoon's perspective.

With ocean temperatures near the Philippines much warmer than they were years ago, is this making the nation even more prone to typhoons? Yes, there's normal Pacific Ocean cycles that bring water temperatures up or down in any given area.

But the water temperature trend in the water near the Philippines, and most of the ocean areas of the world for that matter, are on the upswing, so you have to consider climate change.

I don't have all the answers, but scientists, I know, are looking into this.

If you want to follow this storm, and probably end up with good information, dramatic photos and videos, follow Jim Edds on Twitter (@ExtremeStorms) He's a storm chaser, reporter and filmmaker, and he is in the Philippines now, awaiting the storm.

He was in the Philippines last year when Haiyan hit. Here's one of the videos he came back with.  Edds got himself stranded outside when the typhoon winds abruptly strengthened where he was. He took refuge in a swimming pool, then against a building as all hell broke loose.

I hope this new typhoon is not as bad what I see in Edds' video. Watch: