Typhoon Haiyan

Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that is among the most intense tropical cyclones ever recorded. Upon making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, during early November 2013. It is one of the deadliest typhoons on record in the Philippines, killing at least 6,300 people in the region of Visayas alone. It was the most intense and deadliest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2013. The 30th named storm, thirteenth typhoon, and fifth super typhoon of the 2013 Pacific typhoon season, Haiyan originated from a low-pressure area several hundred kilometers east-southeast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia on November 2. Tracking generally westward, environmental conditions favored tropical cyclogenesis and the system developed into a tropical depression on the following day. After becoming a tropical storm and receiving the name Haiyan at 00:00 UTC on November 4, 2013, the system began a period of rapid intensification that brought it to typhoon intensity by 18:00 UTC on November 5, 2013. By November 6, 2013, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed the system as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS); the storm passed over the island of Kayangel in Palau shortly after attaining this strength. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) estimated the average ten-minute sustained winds at 235 km/h (146 mph) and gusts up to 275 km/h (171 mph) at landfall over Guiuan, Eastern Samar. Haiyan continued to intensify; at 12:00 UTC on November 7, 2013, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) upgraded the storm's maximum ten-minute sustained winds to a peak of 230 km/h (140 mph). The Hong Kong Observatory put the storm's maximum ten-minute sustained winds at 285 km/h (175 mph) prior to landfall in...