Wednesday 5 August 2015

playing weatherman: TYPHOON SOUDELOR

I've decided to update the world on the super typhoon that is currently heading our way. While natural disasters can be devastating to the areas they hit, they also provide a certain amount of excitement to those nearby. We wanna feel the strong wind almost push us off our bikes. We wanna look out the window and see nothing but torrential rain. We want to get a day off work. We want to track the monster as it gets closer, predict its ways and witness the moment it turns into a category 4 or 5 typhoon. We want to be a part of the action. But only for a moment. Kind of like when you witness a big accident. It's terrible and you don't want to see it; except for the fact that you DO want to see it. Just a little bit. We are strange and curious and a little twisted that way.

Okay, here's what you want to know: 
Name: Typhoon Soudelor
Date: August 5 2015
Current strength: Category 3
Likely track: Ryukyu Islands (Japan), Taiwan and Eastern China.

Typhoon Soudelor became a super typhoon on Monday, after it hit Guam. At that point it was equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds of 180 mph. It has already started to lose strength, but it is still a dangerous typhoon. It is expected to gain strength again before hitting Taiwan. It's the most powerful tropical cyclone on earth so far in 2015.

5-day forcast (wunderground.com)

satellite image (wunderground.com)

computer model (wunderground.com)

storm history (wunderground.com)

Some more stats from the Central Weather Bureau (Taiwan):
Analysis
      0600UTC 05 August 2015
      Center Location 19.9N 133.7E
      Movement  WNW  22km/hr
      Minimum Pressure  930 hpa
      Maximum Wind Speed 48 m/s
      Gust 58 m/s
      Radius of 15m/s  250km
      Radius of 25m/s  80km

MORE NEWS about Typhoon Soudelor - posted in the past hour (Current time: 5pm Taiwan):

http://www.news.com.au
http://www.stripes.com
http://www.trust.org
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki (Chinese)