© RAMMB/CIRA/Colorado State UniversityInfrared satellite image of Super Typhoon Goni at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, October 30, 2020, when it was a category 5 storm with 180 mph winds.
Typhoon Goni, with 215 kph (133 miles) sustained winds and gusts of up to 265 kph (164 mph), will make landfall on Sunday as the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since Haiyan that killed more than 6,300 people in November 2013.
Pre-emptive evacuations have started in coastal and landslide-prone communities in the provinces of Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur, while Albay provincial government would order residents in risky areas to leave their homes, Gremil Naz, a local disaster official, told DZBB radio station. "The strength of this typhoon is no joke."
Typhoon Molave last week killed 22 people, mostly through drowning in provinces south of the capital Manila, which is also in the projected path of Goni, the 18th tropical storm in the country.
Authorities are facing another hurdle as social distancing needs to be imposed in evacuation centres to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The Philippines has the second highest COVID-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia, next only to Indonesia.
Comment: Goni put on an extremely impressive bout of rapid intensification beginning at 0Z October 28, strengthening by 145 mph - from a 30-mph tropical depression to a 175-mph super typhoon, in 54 hours
reports Yale Climate Connections.
According to
Sam Lillo,
only five storms in the global tropical cyclone database have achieved a 145-mph increase in 54 hours or less: Typhoon Vera in 1959 in the northwest Pacific; Hurricane Linda in 1997 in the northeast Pacific; Cyclone Zoe in 2002 in the southeast Pacific; Hurricane Wilma in 2005 in the Atlantic, and Hurricane Patricia in 2015 in the northeast Pacific.
Comment: See also: