TYPHOON GONI

Subject: Geography

Context: Typhoon Goni made landfall in the eastern Philippines. Over a million people in the typhoon’s projected path have been evacuated, including in the capital, where the international airport is now closed.

Concept:

• Goni – known as Rolly in the Philippines – is the most powerful storm to hit the country since Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in 2013.
• In fact, Typhoon Goni is the world’s strongest Typhoon in 2020.
• Another storm, Atsani, is gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean as it approaches the Philippines.
• Typhoon is a regionally specific name for a strong “tropical cyclone”.
• Tropical cyclones are known as ‘typhoons’ in the northwest pacific ocean, hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, Willy-willies in north-western Australia and Tropical Cyclones in the Indian Ocean Region.
• A tropical cyclone is a generic term used by meteorologists to describe a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation.
• Tropical cyclones rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
• These are measured by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
• Naming of Typhoons: The Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) Tokyo – Typhoon Centre assigns a tropical cyclone a name from the five lists. The name ‘Goni’ is contributed by South Korea.