Super Typhoon Saomai

A terrible year in the Western Pacific, and this storm is the worst to date. The storm is passing over areas already flattened by Typhoon Bilis - people can't catch their breath!

The most powerful typhoon to hit China in five decades raged across its southeastern coast Thursday, capsizing ships and destroying homes after 1.5 million people evacuated. At least two people were killed and dozens were injured.

... Torrential rains were forecast in the next three days as the typhoon churned inland across crowded areas where Tropical Storm Bilis killed more than 600 people last month.

Saomai, with winds up to 135 mph, made landfall at the town of Mazhan in coastal Zhejiang province and was moving northwest at 12 mph, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing weather officials.

... Saomai, dubbed a "super typhoon" by Chinese forecasters due to its huge size and high wind speeds, was the eighth major storm of this year's unusually violent typhoon season. Saomai was the most powerful typhoon to hit China since the founding of the communist government in Xinhua said, citing the Zhejiang provincial weather bureau.

Before the storm's arrival, 990,000 people were evacuated from flood- prone areas of Zhejiang and 569,000 from the neighboring coastal province of Fujian, Xinhua said. It said a total of 70,000 ships had returned to port in the two provinces.

...Saomai, named for the Vietnamese word for the planet Venus, passed across Japan's Okinawa island group on Wednesday with winds up to 89 mph, prompting airlines to cancel 141 flights and affecting 24,000 passengers.

China's weather bureau had forecast unusually heavy typhoon action this summer, saying warmer than normal Pacific currents and weather patterns over Tibet would create bigger storms and draw them farther inland.

Bilis triggered flooding and landslides as far inland as Hunan province, hundreds of miles from the coast.

Most of the deaths happened in areas away from coastal communities that have elaborate dike networks and a long history of evacuating flood-prone areas.

Typhoon Prapiroon lashed China's southern coast last week, killing at least 80 people in floods and landslides in Guangdong province and neighboring Guangxi.

Even as Saomai stormed ashore, Chinese forecasters were already closely watching Tropical Storm Bopha, which trailed behind it farther out in the Pacific. Bopha was about 110 miles southeast of Guangdong late Thursday and moving west with winds of 29 mph, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

And yet, the Atlantic is still pretty calm - unusually calm for mid-August.

I was wondering why there are very few hurricanes in the South Atlantic. At first, I thought it was because the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is in the northern hemisphere, but then that doesn't explain why there are hurricanes in the South Pacific.

It's a mystery!