User:Earth100/Typhoon Guchol

Typhoon Guchol(Butchoy)

Very strong typhoon (JMA scale)
Category 4 super typhoon (SSHWS)
Super Typhoon Guchol near peak intensity on June 17
Formed	June 10, 2012
Dissipated	currently active
Highest winds	10-minute sustained: 185 km/h (115 mph) 1-minute sustained: 240 km/h (150 mph)
Lowest pressure	930 hPa (mbar); 27.46 inHg
Fatalities	1(52 injured)
Areas affected	Japan
Part of the 2012 Pacific typhoon season

Typhoon Guchol (International designation:1204, JTWC designation: 05W, PAGASA name: Butchoy) was a powerful tropical cyclone which impacted Southern Japan, in June. The storm formed as tropical disturbance formed south-southeast of Pohnpei on June 7, and was upgraded to a Tropical Depression on June 10. The system later intensified in favorable conditions, and reached typhoon intensity on June 15. It reached peak intensity late on June 17, before making landfall over Japan as a category one typhoon.

Authorities issued evacuation orders for more than 150,000 people in central, eastern and northeastern Japan, Kyodo News said, with warnings of dangerous landslides from the heavy rain. Guchol killed one man as the powerful typhoon bringing heavy rain and strong winds cut across Japan's main island Honshu overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, the weather agency and national media said. The man died because of a shed collapsed over him, while 52 people were injured in some fifteen provinces. Guchol, was the the first tropical storm to make a landfall on Japan this year, and the first since 2004 to do so as early as June. The name "Guchol", simply means "turmeric" in a Micronesian language.

Meteorological history

Map plotting the storm's track and intensity, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale

Map key

Saffir–Simpson scale

  Tropical depression (≤38 mph, ≤62 km/h)
  Tropical storm (39–73 mph, 63–118 km/h)
  Category 1 (74–95 mph, 119–153 km/h)
  Category 2 (96–110 mph, 154–177 km/h)
  Category 3 (111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h)
  Category 4 (130–156 mph, 209–251 km/h)
  Category 5 (≥157 mph, ≥252 km/h)
  Unknown

Storm type

Tropical cyclone

Subtropical cyclone

Extratropical cyclone, remnant low, tropical disturbance, or monsoon depression

Late on June 7, a tropical disturbance formed south-southeast of Pohnpei. Late on June 8, the JTWC issued a TCFA on that system but canceled it late on June 9. The JMA upgraded the low-pressure area to a tropical depression on June 10, so did the JTWC early on June 11. Early on the next day, the JTWC upgraded the system to a tropical storm, and later the JMA also upgraded it to a tropical storm and named it Guchol. Early on June 14, the JMA upgraded Guchol to a severe tropical storm, and the PAGASA assigned the local name Butchoy on it as the system entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. Later that day, the JTWC upgraded Guchol to a category 1 typhoon, as convection started to organize. It continued to intensify into a category 2 typhoon on June 15, as it became better organized and started to develop more convection.

Guchol strengthening off the Philippine cost as a Category 3 typhoon on June 16, as it brings heavy rain across the Philippines.

As Guchol went through Explosive intensification with a well defined eye on June 16, the JMA upgraded it to a typhoon early that day, and the JTWC upgraded it further to a category 3 typhoon, and later a category 4 super typhoon. Guchol reached peak intensity late on June 17 before it began to undergo an eyewall replacement cycle as the storm began to weaken under moderate vertical wind shear on June 18, and later started its extratropical transition.The JTWC downgraded Guchol to a tropical storm on June 19, as it made landfall over Kii Peninsula in Japan. Later that day, the JMA downgraded Guchol to a severe tropical storm, as it moves over Japan. On June 20, the JMA issued their last advisories on Guchol, as it fully transitioned into a extratropical cyclone north east of Japan.

Preparations and impact

Before Guchol made landfall over Japan, Guchol brought heavy rain across the Philippines causing floods, and damaging 29.8 million pesos (USD$703,759) worth of rice and corn crops in southern Philippines, according an initial report released by the Philippine agriculture department on Monday.A total of 945 hectares of corn areas and 647 hectares of rice areas were also affected by the floods.

Guchol nearing landfall over Japan on June 19

On June 18th, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced in its reports that the typhoon was approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) to the south of Naha and it would make landfall over Japan's mailand by June 19th. Soon, the coastal regions of Japan started bracing for the system with a wind-speed of 144 kilometres per hour (89 mph), as the storm impacted Japan at 65km/h on June 19 at 8:00(UTC).

Authorities issued evacuation orders for more than 150,000 people in central, eastern and northeastern Japan, Kyodo News said, with warnings of dangerous landslides from the heavy rain, and 452 domestic and international flights were cancelled, affecting 35,000 passengers, while travel on regional and high-speed trains has been hit with delays and cancellations, and some roads have also been closed. In Shizuoka province in the southeast, one man died after a shed collapsed over him, while 52 people were injured in some fifteen provinces, the national broadcaster NHK said at 4:00 am (1900 GMT Tuesday).

See also

• 2012 Pacific typhoon season
• Tropical Storm Talas (2011)