Super Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Yolanda) is one of the most powerful tropical storms ever seen. In fact, it might end up wresting that title from a massive typhoon that decades ago was big enough to cover half the United States. Its winds are already reported to be the strongest ever measured, but scientists are waiting for the storm to subside before editing any record books.
So, whether Haiyan will eclipse earlier storms is yet to be seen. But one thing is clear: This storm is powerful. It began on Nov. 2 and quickly intensified over several days. By Nov. 6, it had an eye more than 9 miles wide, and the storm itself spanned more than 500 miles. Sustained wind speeds reached a record 195 miles per hour, with bursts of more than 230 miles per hour.
When it's over and the damage is tallied, Haiyan may vie for a spot among the worst storms in recorded history. For some perspective on that, here are some of the other devastating storms the world has suffered. Whether tornado, blizzard, hurricane, or haboob, these are among the biggest, strongest, deadliest and most terrifying storms in history.
1. Super Typhoon Tip, 1979
Image: GMS-1 Satellite, NOAA
In October 1979, the largest tropical storm recorded on Earth made landfall over southern Japan. From end to end, the swirling mass of chaos and destruction known as Super Typhoon Tip spanned nearly 1,400 miles. It killed 99 people. If Tip had churned through the Gulf of Mexico instead of the western Pacific, it would have covered an area from Guatemala to Kentucky, Mexico City to the Bahamas. Even super-huge Sandy, which struck the U.S. east coast last year, wasn’t as vast.
But Tip wasn’t just big. The storm also holds the record for the most intense tropical cyclone. Pressure as low as 870 millibars (the lowest sea level pressure recorded) generated sustained winds reaching 190 miles per hour. Crews flying into the eye of storm to measure wind speed and pressure described it like this: “Inside Tip it looked like a wall; just a mass of dark clouds with bright sunshine above. At night it was stars above, and sometimes you’d see lightning that lit up the wall cloud. Tip’s eyewall was totally circular, with no gaps or breaks in it. It was solid all the way around.” - Nadia Drake
2. Iran Blizzard, 1972
Ardakan, Iran was one of the worst-hit areas.
Information about the blizzard that hit Iran in 1972 is scarce, but it is clearly the deadliest snowstorm in history. By far. An estimated 4,000 people were killed. Entire villages were buried under as much as 26 feet of snow that was dropped from February 5-8, and temperatures fell as low as -13 degrees F. The storm followed four years of severe drought. - Betsy Mason
3. Great Blizzard of 1888
The Great Blizzard of 1888 dumped up to 5 feet of snow on the northeastern United States over a day and a half in March, creating snowdrifts up to 50 feet high. New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut were the worst-hit, but pretty much the entire area from Chesapeake Bay north to Canada's Atlantic Provinces was impacted. Also known as the Great White Hurricane, it was one of the worst snowstorms in U.S. history and reportedly killed over 400 people, including 200 in New York City alone.
The storm came just two months after another devastating blizzard struck the Great Plains. This one was known as the Children's Blizzard because it struck during the day on January 12 and trapped many children in their small schoolhouses, freezing some of them to death. The storm was blamed for 235 deaths. - Betsy Mason
4. Largest U.S. Tornado Outbreak, 2011
Image: NASA Earth Observatory
Every year, giant vortices of doom reach down from the clouds and drill into the Earth. Tornadoes occur in many places on Earth - but in the U.S., we tend to focus on the region known as Tornado Alley. Running through the American South and Midwest, Tornado Alley has more than earned its name. Earlier this year, a tornado outbreak spawned a massive, 1.3-mile-wide twister that tore through Moore, Oklahoma and killed 23 people.
The largest tornado outbreak in recorded history occurred in the U.S. Over three days in April 2011, 358 tornadoes raked their fingers into the ground, uprooting buildings, communities and lives. The storm system (pictured above) covered areas from Texas to New York, and even southern Canada. When the dust clouds cleared, 348 people were dead. The deadliest single tornado in U.S. history is the Tri-State Tornado, a terrifyingly huge and long-lived storm that traced a 219-mile-long path of destruction through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
But tornadoes don’t only happen in the United States. The deadliest tornado on record struck Bangladesh in April 1980 and killed 1,300 people. Bangladesh is especially prone to tornadoes, and the country’s tornado-related fatalities comprise nearly half the world’s total. - Nadia Drake
5. Cyclone Hyacinthe, 1980
Cyclone Hyacinthe is the wettest storm on record. Over 15 days in 1980, the storm dropped more than 220 inches of rain on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.
It's not the first time Reunion Island has experienced torrential rain of nearly biblical proportions. When Tropical Cyclone Denise hit the mountainous Indian Ocean island, the storm left a trail of unfortunate records in its wake: most rainfall in 12 hours (45 inches) and most rainfall in 24 hours (71.9 inches).
But that’s not all. Among the island's other soggy records is the prize for most rainfall over 72 hours (154.7 inches, during 2007’s Tropical Cyclone Gamede). - Nadia Drake
6. Storm of the Century, 1993
Superstorm of 1993 on March 13.
The superstorm of 1993 was one of the most intense mid-latitude cyclonic storms to hit the Eastern United States. It earned the nickname the Storm of the Century by being impressively strong and big and impacting a huge area. The storm hit a large part of the country with all sorts of devastating weather from March 12-14. It caused flooding along the Florida coast, dumped huge amounts of snow from Alabama to Maine, whipped the mid-Atlantic coast with high winds, surprised meteorologists with incredibly low barometric pressures and followed it all up with record low temperatures, including 2 degrees F in Birmingham, Alabama (which has an average low of 44 degrees F in March).
There were whiteouts, thunder snow, tornadoes, storm surges and a squall line. The storm collapsed roofs, sank boats, closed airports, and shut down highways, causing nearly US$9 billion in damage and killing 318 people. - Betsy Mason
7. Australia Dust Storm, 2009
In 2009, an intense dust storm swept across eastern Australia, blacking out cities and turning the air a deep orange-red. The dust originated from a dry remote corner in the centre of the country and travelled as far as New Zealand. At its peak, satellite measurements estimated the dust plume to be 500 kilometres wide and 1,000 kilometres long, covering dozens of cities. Air particle concentrations were nearly 800 times higher than normal. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology referred to the dust storm as a “pretty incredible event." - Adam Mann
8. Carrington Solar Storm
Image: NASA
The Carrington event was a storm that was literally out of this world. In 1859, the sun sent out an enormous flare that spewed charged particles toward the Earth. When this explosion hit our magnetic field, it generated the largest geomagnetic storm ever recorded. Compasses and other sensitive instruments reeled. The megastorm caused auroras, which are typically confined to the far north and south of our planet, over New York City and Hawaii. But not all the effects were beautiful: electrical and telegraph wires threw sparks, in some cases burning to the ground. Should a similar solar storm strike Earth today, it would potentially cause trillions of dollars worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from. - Adam Mann
Top image: A resident walks past high waves pounding the sea wall amidst strong winds as Typhoon Haiyan hit the city of Legaspi, Albay province, south of Manila on November 8, 2013. One of the most intense typhoons on record whipped the Philippines on November 8, killing three people and terrifying millions as monster winds tore roofs off buildings and giant waves washed away flimsy homes. Photo: Charism SAYAT/AFP/Getty Images.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please adhere to proper blog etiquette when posting your comments. This blog owner will exercise his absolution discretion in allowing or rejecting any comments that are deemed seditious, defamatory, libelous, racist, vulgar, insulting, and other remarks that exhibit similar characteristics. If you insist on using anonymous comments, please write your name or other IDs at the end of your message.