Wunderground.com by Dr. Jeff Maters - 11 November 2013
Typhoon Haiyan made landfall on the northern Vietnam coast near the Chinese border as a Category 1 storm with 75 mph winds near 21 UTC Sunday. At least 13 people died and 81 were injured in Vietnam from the storm, said the Voice of Vietnam, the country's national radio broadcaster. Satellite loops show that Haiyan has now pushed into Southeastern China, where 4 - 8" of rain will likely cause moderate flooding. Huge 26-foot waves from Haiyan swept 16 people out to sea in Taiwan on Sunday, killing 8 of them, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. Haiyan has been downgraded to a tropical depression and will dissipate later today, finally bringing to an end its catastrophic march through Asia.
Figure 1. Tropical Storm Haiyan over China, as seen by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite at 05:45 UTC on November 11, 2013. Image credit: NASA.
Third deadliest typhoon in Philippines history
With an official death toll of 1,774, Haiyan already ranks as the 3rd deadliest typhoon in Philippine history. The deadliest typhoon in Philippine history was Typhoon Thelma of 1991, which killed between 5101 - 8000 people, reports wunderground's weather historian Christopher C. Burt in his latest post on Philippines typhoon history. The greatest death toll from Haiyan is likely to be in the capital of Leyte, Tacloban (population 221,000), which received a direct hit from Haiyan's northern eyewall.
Figure 2. In this handout from the Malacanang Photo Bureau, an aerial view of buildings destroyed in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan on November 10, 2013 over the Leyte province. (Getty/Malacanang Photo Bureau)
Tropical disturbance 90W bringing heavy rain to the Philippines
A tropical disturbance centered about 200 miles east of the Philippines Island of Mindanao (Invest 90W), is bringing heavy rains to Mindanao, and has the potential to become a tropical depression by Tuesday. The disturbance has developed an elongated surface circulation and a respectable amount of heavy thunderstorm activity. Wind shear is low, but the disturbance is too close to the Equator intensify quickly, since the storm will not be able to leverage Earth's spin to get itself spinning. The disturbance has a high chance of development, according to Monday's 06 UTC Western Pacific Tropical Weather Discussion by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). The heaviest rains of 3 - 6" from 90W will stay to the south of the typhoon-devastated areas of the Central Philippines, but 2 - 4" of rain could fall in the disaster zone on Tuesday and Wednesday, hampering relief efforts. I give a 70% chance that 90W will be classified as a tropical depression by JTWC by Tuesday. The Japan Meteorological Agency is already classifying 90W as a tropical depression, and the system is being referred to as Tropical Depression Zoraida by the Philippines Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA.)
