Headline
Category 5 Nepartak Headed for a Thursday Landfall in Taiwan
Taiwan
Total Ocean Heat Content (in kilojoules per square centimeter) on July 6, 2016. Image: University of Wisconsin/CIMSS
[T]he typhoon has continued to take advantage of light wind shear of 5 - 15 knots and extremely warm ocean waters of 31°C (88°F) to intensify into a ferocious Category 5 storm. These waters are about 1 - 2°C (1.8 - 3.6°F) above average.
...Over the past two days, unusually warm waters have extended to great depth below the storm, creating some of the highest oceanic heat content readings one sees for a tropical cyclone--near 150 kJ/cm**2
Nepartak is the third Category 5 storm on Earth so far in 2016, and tied for the second strongest tropical cyclone of the year (by wind speed).
On average, Earth sees 4 - 5 Category 5 storms per year, with over 50% of these being typhoons in the Northwest Pacific
Related Content
Science Source
| Science
Human influence on tropical cyclone intensity
Adam H. Sobel, Suzana J. Camargo, Timothy M. Hall et al
Headline
Jul 15, 2016 | WIRED
Here’s Proof That a Typhoon’s Biggest Peril Is Rain, Not Wind
Headline
Jul 13, 2016 | EurekAlert! / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA IMERG finds Typhoon Nepartak dropped almost 20 inches of rain
Headline
Jul 13, 2016 | The China Post
Crop losses from Typhoon Nepartak top NT$1 billion
