Typhoon Goni

Typhoon Goni

Known as Rolly in the Philippines, the Super Typhoon Goni made landfall in the eastern Philippines. Goni’s peak winds were as high as 195 mph, comparable to Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. That storm killed about 6,000 people.

About Typhoon Goni

Typhoon Goni is one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the world. It’s even more powerful than Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people in 2013. Typhoon Goni reached its peak winds of up to 193 km/h, making it the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane.

Typhoon Goni made four landfalls in southern Luzon, with the Bicol Region bearing the brunt of its impact. Bato municipality in the eastern island province of Catanduanes was first hit with maximum winds of 225 km/h.

Typhoon Goni caused significant damages to health facilities, schools and essential services. Damage to infrastructure reached Php11.3 billion (US$234 million).

What is Typhoon?

A typhoon is a giant, rotating storm that brings wind, rain, and destruction. Hurricanes and typhoons are both kinds of tropical cyclones.

A typhoon forms when winds blow into areas of the ocean where the water is warm. These winds collect moisture and rise, while colder air moves in below. This creates pressure, which causes the winds to move very quickly.

In the North Atlantic Ocean and Northeast Pacific, the term 'hurricane' is used; whereas the same disturbance is called a 'typhoon' in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and a 'tropical cyclone' - or sometimes a 'severe tropical cyclone' or 'severe cyclonic storms' - in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Nomenclature of Typhoon

Typhoons are named after number-based conventions and a list-based convention.

A special committee of the World Meteorological Organization maintains lists of names to be used for tropical cyclones.

The names on the list must be short, distinctive, and relevant to their cultural and geographic areas so that they are easy for people to remember.

For the Atlantic basin there are six alphabetical lists of 21 names each, and the lists cycle yearly. So it is very likely, for example, that many of the names on the 2018 list, which starts with Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, and Ernesto, will recur in 2024.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used because there are not enough available names. If there are more than 21 named storms, Greek letters are used.