Noru strikes the Philippines
The technical definition of a “rapid intensification” tropical cyclone is a storm with sustained winds of at least 55 kilometers per hour over a 24-hour period. In the Western Pacific, super typhoon Noru (locally called Karting) crossed that threshold. The storm’s winds increased from 80 kilometers per hour on September 24 to 250 kilometers per hour the following day. Meteorologists have recorded only a handful of storms that have ever intensified so quickly.
Noru ran aground in the Philippines in the evening of 25.9 in return for a class 4 storm. It first hit the Polillo Islands before making a second landfall about 55 kilometers (35 mi) northeast of Manila on the populous island of Luzon. By News reportsthe storm resulted in at least six deaths, knocked out power in two provinces and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Finland’s nuclear power plant acquired this picture from Noru on 25/09/2022, a few hours after landing. Clouds are visible in the infrared brightness temperature data, which is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures (purple) from warmer surfaces below (yellow). The coldest temperatures (white) are usually associated with the highest clouds.
Noru weakened as it passed over the mountainous terrain of Luzon, but forecasters expected it to re-strengthen to a Category 3 storm as it passed over warm waters in the South China Sea. Typhoon could do landing on September 27 or 28 in central Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of people in Vietnam prepared to evacuate ahead of the storm.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/World Viewand Finland’s national Arctic Circle Partnership. The story of Adam Voiland.