The southern Chinese giant level has entered emergency lockdown as it becomes attached due to the effects of the huge “super typhoon” projected to land on Wednesday (September 24).
Super Tiny Lagatha, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, has already hit Taiwan and the northern Philippines with heavy rain and destructive winds of 177 mph (285 km/h).
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The typhoon is scheduled to land in the country’s Guangdong province on Wednesday. So far, more than 770,000 people have been evacuated from Guangdong alone so far, and by the end of today, that number is expected to rise to over 1 million (September 23) according to state broadcaster China Central Television.
“Ragatha will pose a serious threat to Hong Kong. Hong Kong could reach hato levels in 2017 and become Mankhut in 2018,” city director of the city, Eric Chan, said on Monday (September 22), referring to two previous super typhoons that caused billions of dollars in damage. (If the wind speed reaches 115 mph (185 km/h), the typhoon is considered a “super type.”
Hurricanes and typhoons are tropical storms that grow from thin layers of seawater that evaporate due to the wind. The moisture rises and forms storm clouds. The warmer the oceans are, the more energy the system acquires, pushing the formation process up to overdrive, and ensuring violent storms take shape more rapidly.
This is why the storm season occurs between June and November, and why the most powerful storms usually occur between August and September when ocean temperatures reach peak.
The extreme strength of the Ragatha has led to some claims that storms are close to the upper limits of what the Earth can produce. There are some truth to this: The current calculation of the maximum potential strength of a storm peaks at around 200 mph (322 km/h).
This estimate is made by a rather simple equation that balances the energy extracted from warm seawater with the kinetic energy of the storm lost to surface friction.
However, climate change is nurturing this bar, and scientists have discovered that they have already won a hurricane season that is far more likely than the 1980s. Since March 2023, average sea surface temperatures around the world have reached record highs, shooting extra muscle strength into the storm.
Thankfully, some of the power of Ragatha fades before the storm hits the land. According to China’s National Weather Centre, the typhoon is expected to be a hurricane equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.
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