Tajfun / Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)

Super tajfun Haiyan (Yolanda, w nazwie lokalnej) który dziś rano dotarł do wschodnich wybrzeży archipelagu filipińskiego, jest chyba największym tajfunem w tym roku. Miałem dzisiaj lecieć do Manili, ale okazało się, że szystkie loty zostały odwołane. Jestem więc w Pagadian, w naszym nowicjacie, gdzie miałem wykłady w tym tygodniu. Z drugiej strony patrząc, scj nowicjat, to bezpiecznie oddalone miejsce od zasięgu tajfunu. Dziś jedynie tu pada i mocno wieje.

W obecniej chwili, tajfun Yolanda znajduje się gdzieś w centrum kraju, na wyspach Visayas. Dopiero wieczorem, albo jutro rano, będziemy wiedzieć o zniszczeniach wywołanych przez ten super tajfun.

Tajfun Yolanda nie jest pierwszym tajfunem w tym roku, który przeszedł nad Filipinami. To już 24-ty. Filipiny to rzeczywiście kraj tajfunów i trzęsień ziemi. Poniżej opisuje, jak nazywa się tajfuny na Filipinach, jak powstają ich dziwne dla nas nazwy. Przypominam też, ile było tajfunów w tym kraju w kilku ostatnich latach. 

 

 

Super Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, which made landfall in the Philippines this morning, might be the strongest typhoon this year. I supposed to fly to Manila this morning but all flights were cancelled. I am trapped in Pagadian in our novitiate where I was giving input whole week. At the same time I’m safe in the scj novitiate because the effect of the typhoon is minimal here. Just heavy rain and windy.

At this moment the typhoon is somewhere in the middle of the country in the central Visayas. This evening or tomorrow morning we should know damage it has done.

Typhoon Yolanda isn’t a first typhoon this year but 24^th. The Philippines is really a country of typhoons and earthquakes. Below I will explain how the Philippines names its storms and there is also a list that shows number of typhoons that hit the country in recent years. 

How the Philippines Names its Storms

The Philippines used to rely on names of typhoons issued by the U.S. Air Force for many years. In 1963, the Philippines’ weather bureau started to create its own names to tropical cyclones that entered its area of responsibility. It usually assigns female names for storms sighted in the northern hemisphere and male for those in the south. The names are arranged according to the 25-letter of the local alphabet that starts with A and ends in Y. The first tropical cyclone of the season takes a name that starts with A. So the list has 25 names plus 10 auxiliary names, in case more storms enter the country.

Four groups of names are listed to make sure none is repeated over a four-year cycle. Around 20 storms enter the Philippines a year, although not all make landfall. Super-typhoon Yolanda is the 24th cyclone to hit the country this year. In 1993 a record 32 typhoons hit the country.

The state weather bureau, PAG-ASA (Government agency for weather forecasting), started retiring the names of destructive storms starting in 1979. Storm names are retired when they cause at least 1 billion Philippine pesos ($23 million) in damage or at least 300 deaths.  That means names such as Sendong (2011) or Pablo last year which killed more than 1,100 people, or Ondoy, which inundated the capital in 2009 and caused billions of pesos in damages, have been scratched out from the list.

However, PAG-ASA only chooses Filipino-sounding names – not necessarily names of people – to they can be easily remembered and recalled. In 1998, the weather bureau held a contest to solicit potential typhoon names from the public. It eventually chose 140 names to comprise the four-year cycle.

Two more tropical cyclones are expected later this year, and they would be named Zoraida and Alamid. If more typhoons enter the PAG-ASA’s monitoring sphere later this year the first will be tagged Bruno, and then so forth down the list.

The first tropical cyclone of the year starts with the name beginning in letter A as in AURING under column 1 for 2009 and so on down the list as one disturbance succeeds another.  The 5th year (2013) will bring us back to column 1 of AURING.  In the event that the number of tropical cyclones within the year exceeds 25, an auxiliary list is used, the first ten of which are listed under each column.

1	2	3	4
2009 2013 2017 2021	2010 2014 2018 2022	2011 2015 2019 2023	2012 2016 2020 2024
AURING BISING CRISING DANTE EMONG FABIAN GORIO HUANING ISANG JOLINA KIKO LABUYO MARING NANDO ODETTE PAOLO QUEDAN RAMIL SANTI TINO URDUJA VINTA WILMA YOLANDA ZORAIDA	AGATON BASYANG CALOY DOMENG ESTER FLORITA GLENDA HENRY INDAY JOSE KATRING LUIS MARIO NENENG OMPONG PAENG QUEENIE RUBY SENIANG TOMAS USMAN VENUS WALDO YAYANG ZENY	AMANG BETTY CHEDENG DODONG EGAY FALCON GORING HANNA INENG JENNY KABAYAN LANDO MARILYN NONOY ONYOK PERLA QUIEL RAMON SARAH TISOY URSULA VIRING WENG YOYOY ZIGZAG	AMBO BUTCHOY CARINA DINDO ENTENG FERDIE GENER HELEN IGME JULIAN KAREN LAWIN MARCE NINA OFEL PEPITO QUINTA ROLLY SIONY TONYO ULYSSES VICKY WARREN YOYONG ZOSIMO

AUXILIARY LIST

ALAMID BRUNO CONCHING DOLOR ERNIE FLORANTE GERARDO HERNAN ISKO JEROME

AGILA BAGWIS CHITO DIEGO ELENA FELINO GUNDING HARRIET INDANG JESSA

ABE BERTO CHARO DADO ESTOY FELION GENING HERMAN IRMA JAIME

ALAKDAN BALDO CLARA DENCIO ESTONG FELIPE GARDO HELING ISMAEL JULIO

Number of typhoons in the Philippines per year:

    2013 - 24 (including Yolanda)

    2012 - 17

    2011 - 19

    2010 - 11

    2009 - 22

    2008 - 21

    2007 - 13

    2006 - 20

    2005 - 17

    2004 - 25

    2003 - 25.

Most resent pictures after typhoon Yolanda