This is very bad news for the Philippines. Haiyan is one of the strongest storms recorded and looks amazing on satellite. I don't even know what I would think if this was coming towards Houston... Prayers for the Philippines during the destruction they are about to endure. I hope they are prepared. From Dr. Jeff Master's Blog: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html
Holy balls. It has a perfect eyewall, looking like a buzz saw without losing intensification. Just, wow. I'd evacuate to Canada for that. Amazing.
wow 190 mph, i have coworkers that have families in the Philippines And we are trying to figure out a good way to chat and stay in touch. I suggested whatsapp or just regular e-mail, or gtalk.
On the positive side, the Storm surge is predicted at no greater than 17'. So maybe it's a tight, high-wind storm without the energy of a extremely wide storm like Ike and Katrina. I'm beginning to think the highest winds don't produce the highest storm surge. There's an inverse relation to how the energy is used by the storm, maybe. Also after hitting Philippines, it could restrengthen and turn slightly north on a direct course to Hong Kong and Macau
Daaaaaamn that thing is crazy. Being from South Florida, I've been through my fair share of these things, but nothing that looked like this monster. In college we used to have hurricane parties and they were just another excuse to get drunk lol.
Is it going to strike Manila? I spent a lot of time working there, and large parts if the city are low lying slums, easily flooded.
There are even swirls within the eye. This thing is extremely dangerous. These small swirls are suction tunnels within the eye which actually leads to strengthening. This may be the strongest storm ever seen Satellite. [Large Satellite Frame] Spoiler
Unfortunately I would expect most of the instruments to fail where the strongest part of the storm hits... This is a typical house on Calicoan Island. These people were definitely evacuated but most will go back nothing there.
Not near landfall yet and Balangiga, Philippines reports 96mph sustained winds right now http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Balangiga Spoiler
"Strongest" by what measure? Wind speed? The storm surge is probably not in the top 25 of all time. Don't mean to belittle. I've just always been fascinated that the largest storm surges are not directly related to top wind speeds.
