- Typhoon Haishen made landfall over southern Japan on 6th September becoming the country’s second landfalling typhoon within a week.
- Japan’s meteorological agency has referred to the tropical storm as “large” and “very strong”.
What has been the impact of typhoon Haishen?
- The typhoon is categorised as a Category 4 storm which means well-built framed houses can suffer severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and exterior walls.
- Multiple typhoons hit Japan every year and typically, typhoon season is expected to last till November.
- Typhoon Haishen, referred to as typhoon number 10 in Japan has left over a dozen people injured and left hundreds of thousands of households without electricity in the country.
How are typhoons named in Japan?
- The JMA numbers typhoons in Japan and the first typhoon to occur after January 1st of the year is called typhoon number 1.
- While in the US, hurricanes are referred to by English names, the intergovernmental organisation called the Typhoon Committee (Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Japan; Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Macao, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States of America), which has 14 members including Japan uses Asian names for typhoons that are contributed by the member countries.
- Haishen was a name recommended by China and means “sea god” in Chinese.
Why hurricanes are called typhoons in the North Pacific and Asia?
- Depending on where they occur, hurricanes may be called typhoons or cyclones. The scientific name for all these kinds of storms is tropical cyclones.
- The tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or the eastern Pacific Ocean are called hurricanes and the ones that form in the Northwest Pacific are called typhoons.
- Tropical storms that form in the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea are called cyclones.