Hurricane Season 2012 # 1

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Op zaterdag 1 december 2012 18:16 schreef aloa het volgende:
50 % nu boven de atlantic.

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Extremely dangerous Typhoon Bopha is bearing down on the Philippine island of Mindanao as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds. Bopha completed an eyewall replacement cycle on Sunday and has been steadily intensifying today, and will make landfall on Mindanao in the early morning on Tuesday local time. Mindanao rarely gets hit by typhoons, since the island is too close to the Equator, and the infrastructure of Mindanao is not prepared to handle heavy typhoon rains as well as the more typhoon-prone northern islands. Bopha is potentially a catastrophic storm for Mindanao. The typhoon is following a similar track to last year's Tropical Storm Washi, which hit Mindanao on December 16, 2011 with 60 mph winds and torrential rains. Washi triggered devastating flooding that killed 1268 people. Washi was merely a tropical storm, and Bopha is likely to hit at Category 4 or 5 strength, making it the strongest typhoon ever recorded in Mindanao.

Bopha: the most southerly typhoon on record
Bopha became a tropical depression unusually close to the Equator, at 3.6°N latitude. Tropical cyclones rarely form so close to the Equator, because they cannot leverage the Earth's rotation to get themselves spinning. According to hurricane expert Dr. Paul Roundy of SUNY Albany, Bopha got its spin from a large-scale atmospheric wave called a mixed Rossby gravity wave. Because of the lack of atmospheric spin so close to the Equator, it took Bopha over four days to intensify into a typhoon, and it stayed a relatively small storm. Bopha became the most southerly typhoon ever recorded in the Western Pacific at 06 GMT on November 30, when the storm was at 3.8°N latitude. The previous most southerly typhoon was Typhoon Kate of 14 - 25 October 1970, which reached typhoon intensity at 4.3°N, 137.4°E. Bopha continued intensifying over the weekend, becoming the second most southerly super typhoon ever recorded (150 mph winds) at 00 GMT on December 1, when it was at 6.1°N latitude. The record most southerly super typhoon was Kate, which reached super typhoon intensity at 6.0°N, 126.3°E. Kate struck the Philippine island of Mindanao as a Category 4 storm, killing 631 people. Bopha further intensified into a Category 5 typhoon on Monday at 7.4°N latitude, becoming the second most southerly Category 5 typhoon on record, next to Typhoon Louise of 1964, which was a Category 5 storm at 7.3°N. According to NOAA's Coastal Services Center, there have been only 4 previous typhoons of at least Category 4 strength to track within 200 nautical miles of Mindanao Island, dating back to 1945: Mike ("Ruping" ) in 1990, Ike ("Nitang") in 1984, Kate ("Titang") in 1970, and Louise ("Ining" ) in 1964.

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Supertyfoon Bopha bereikt Filipijnen
De supertyfoon Bopha nadert het Filipijnse eiland Mindanao. Ze heeft momenteel een kracht die overeenkomt met een orkaan van de vijfde categorie.

Botha heeft een geschatte kerndruk van 930 hPa en gaat gepaard met een gemiddelde windsnelheid van 185 km/u en windstoten tot 260 km/u. Zoals altijd vormen de enorme hoeveelheden neerslag een groot gevaar, met kans op overstromingen, modderstromen en landverschuivingen. Inmiddels zijn vele duizenden mensen geëvacueerd.

De Filipijnen worden elk jaar wel door enkele tropische systemen aangedaan. Vorig jaar in december vonden nog meer dan 1200 mensen de dood op Mindanao door tropische storm Washi.

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Bopha kills at least six, number expected to rise
The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year has killed six people and has caused power cuts and flooding in areas vulnerable to landslides.

Typhoon Bopha has killed at least six people in the southern Philippines, rescue officials say.

The six died on Mindanao island's east coast, where the typhoon made landfall early on Tuesday. Four fishermen are missing, Freddie Bendulo, planning and development officer of Davao Oriental province told AFP.

Bopha, the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, has caused power cuts and flooding in areas already vulnerable to landslides.

More than 41,000 residents have moved out of their homes in high-risk coastal villages and along rivers, including in southern provinces that were devastated by a deadly storm a year ago.

Power has been cut off in several municipalities in southern Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Davao Oriental provinces while parts of Agusan del Sur province are flooded, he added.

On Monday, President Benigno Aquino III made a national TV appeal for people in Typhoon Bopha's path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously.

"This typhoon is not a joke," Aquino said after meeting top officials in charge of disaster-response.

"But we can minimise the damage and loss of lives if we help each other," he added.

Bopha was expected to be out of Philippine territory by Friday.

At least 80 domestic flights have been cancelled.

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Tyfoon Bopha eist zeker zes levens
De tyfoon Bopha, de krachtigste van het jaar op de Filipijnen, heeft het leven gekost aan zes mensen. Meer dan 40.000 mensen zochten een schuilplaats.

De slachtoffers vielen in het uiterste zuiden van de archipel. Zo kwam een vrouw terecht onder een vallende boom. Vier mensen zijn nog vermist.

Bopha heeft ondertussen koers gezet naar de centrale regio's.

De tyfoon kwam aan land op het eiland Mindanao, met windsnelheden tot 210 kilometer per uur en hevige regenval, zo meldt het Filipijnse meteorologische instituut, dat waarschuwt voor overstromingen. De stroom is op vele plaatsen uitgevallen. Het luchtverkeer en de zeevaart werden geschorst en scholen blijven dicht.

Maandag riep president Benigno Aquino op om de tyfoon ernstig te nemen. ‘Het kan de krachtigste treffer van dit jaar zijn', zei hij. ‘Maar we kunnen de schade en het dodental minimaliseren als we elkaar helpen.'

In 2011 kwamen meer dan 1.500 mensen om bij de 29 tyfoons op de Filipijnen.