Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) completely slams the Phillipines.

 This is a very worrying weather event indeed of biblical proportions and some are saying it is the worst storm ever.  That is a big call.

Cyclonic conditions earlier this year in Urunga

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Typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda) is the second-deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 3,631 people in that country alone.

The thirtieth named storm of the 2013 Pacific typhoon season, Haiyan originated from an area of low pressure several hundred kilometers east-southeast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia on November 2. Tracking generally westward, environmental conditions favored tropical cyclogenesis and the system developed into a tropical depression the following day.

After becoming a tropical storm and attaining the name Haiyan at 0000 UTC on November 4, the system began a period of rapid intensification that brought it to typhoon intensity by 1800 UTC on November 5. By November 6, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed the system as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale; the storm passed over the island of Kayangel in Palau shortly after attaining this strength.

Thereafter, it continued to intensify; at 1200 UTC on November 7, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) upgraded the storm's maximum ten-minute sustained winds to 235 km/h (145 mph), the highest in relation to the cyclone. At 1800 UTC, the JTWC estimated the system's one-minute sustained winds to 315 km/h (195 mph), unofficially making Haiyan the fourth most intense tropical cyclone ever observed.

Several hours later, the eye of the cyclone made its first landfall in the Philippines at Guiuan, Eastern Samar, without any change in intensity; if verified, this would make Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone to make a landfall on record, surpassing the old record of 305 km/h (190 mph) set by Atlantic Hurricane Camille in 1969. Gradually weakening, the storm made five additional landfalls in the country before emerging over the South China Sea.

The cyclone caused catastrophic destruction in the central Philippines, particularly on Samar Island and Leyte, where the governor estimated that at least 10,000 people may have died in the city of Tacloban alone.

According to UN officials, about 11 million people have been affected and many have been left homeless




Images @ Eminpee Fotography