Mangkhut and Florence are the names of two of the most powerful storms on the planet.
Mangkhut has now been classified as a super typhoon by the Hong Kong Observatory
https://www.hko.gov.hk/m/tcp.htm with maximum sustained winds of 240km/h
The United Nations Global Disaster Alerting Coordination system‚ GDACS‚ warns Mangkhut “is expected to have a high humanitarian impact based on the storm strength and the affected population in the past and the forecasted path.
“Up to 43.3 million people may be affected by wind speeds of cyclone strength or above.”
A zoom on the eye of Super Typhoon #Mangkhut (#26W) over the last 4 hours (02:42-0640Z or 10:40am-2:40pm local 12th Sep 2018). Beautiful! #SuperTyphoonMangkhut
Thanks to #Himawari8 rapidscan, band 3, 690nm (Red) pic.twitter.com/v2qfTTScBQ
— James Holbeach⛈???? (@opplevelse) September 12, 2018
Here's a satellite image gif of #Mangkhut crossing 135° longitude at 0600 UTC (2PM local time) and becoming #OmpongPH.
Official time of PAR entry will be announced by PAGASA. pic.twitter.com/DW3b520JsO
— Ariel Rojas (@arielrojasPH) September 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/dyaalertas/status/1039771199725871105
Florence is a Category 4 hurricane labbelled by the US National Hurricane Centre https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/120543.shtml as “an extremely dangerous major hurricane”‚ packing 225km/h winds. It’s predicted to make landfall most likely in North Carolina on the the US East coast some time early on Friday morning South African time.
The Washington Post reports https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/09/12/hurricane-florence-charges-toward-carolinas-with-potential-for-unbelievable-damage/?utm_term=.8d6985e120d1 “Large and dangerous‚ Hurricane Florence is drawing ever closer the coast of the Carolinas‚ where it threatens to become the most intense storm to strike the region in at least 25 years‚ since Hugo. The Category 4 storm is likely to produce “catastrophic” flooding in the eastern Carolinas as well as destructive winds.”
Watch tonight's sunset over #HurricaneFlorence, captured by the #GOESEast satellite, as the storm draws closer to the East Coast. Latest real-time imagery: https://t.co/bKPHNSAQeq pic.twitter.com/k79Q3v8CuR
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) September 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/GaryCooperWTVD/status/1039670021969125376
https://twitter.com/dyaalertas/status/1039772685071540224
By: Reuben Goldberg
Source: TMG Digital.
