The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said earlier this week it expected Super Typhoon Haiyan to weaken as it crossed the ocean to the Philippines. Instead, Haiyan intensified and accelerated as it moved closer to Philippines and ultimately made landfall today. Why?
According to NOAA’s Visualization Laboratory, deep warm water in the Pacific fueled Haiyan’s intensification.
NOAA said that “ideal” environmental conditions for intensification – namely low wind shear and warm ocean temperatures – exist in the Pacific now. Those conditions allowed Haiyan to grow into one of the strongest – perhaps the strongest – storm ever recorded.
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