Typhoon Usagi Heads Toward Taiwan and China: AIR Worldwide

Typhoon Sanba

According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Usagi, a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 204 km/h (10 minute wind speed as reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency), is expected to strengthen over the coming days and could become the first Category 5 storm of 2013. The storm is currently located several hundred miles off the coasts of both the northern Philippine island of Luzon and Taiwan and is gathering strength as it moves northwest. Usagi, which is called Odette in the Philippines, is expected to deliver…

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Tropical Cyclone Utor Slams Philippines, Heads Towards China’s Coast

Cyclone Utor

According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Utor slammed into the northern Philippine island of Luzon on Monday, August 12, at around 3:00 pm local time (7:00 UTC) with 10-minute sustained winds of 175 km/h (109 mph, JMA), gusts of up to 210 km/h (130 mph, JMA), and waves up to 2.5 meters high. Utor’s strength at landfall was a Category 4 Super Typhoon, but it  weakened to a Category 2 as it moved over the island. Once again over warm open waters of the South China Sea (with…

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Typhoon Nalgae on Course to Hit the Philippines

BOSTON, Sept. 30, 2011 — According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Nalgae (named “Quiel” by the Philippines state weather bureau, PAGASA) formed on September 24 east of Guam from an area of convection with a weak low-level circulation center. Over the next several days, Nalgae became better organized under moderate vertical wind shear and high sea surface temperatures of 29°C-30°C. It strengthened to tropical storm strength and was named by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on September 26. Nalgae is the nineteenth named tropical cyclone of the 2011…

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Typhoon Nesat Makes Landfall in Philippines

According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Nesat (known locally as “Pedring”) made landfall in the eastern Isabela and Aurora provinces on the Pacific coast of the Philippines at 18:21 GMT Monday, September 26 with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kilometers per hour), making it a category 2 typhoon. Nesat came ashore exactly two years after Typhoon Ketsana, the most devastating typhoon for the Philippines in the 2009 Pacific typhoon season. “Strong monsoonal flow from the south resulted in significant moisture and more than 400 mm of…

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