TYPHOON HAIYAN

       Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. On making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines.^[1] It is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record,^[2] killing at least 6,300 people in that country alone. In terms of JTWC (Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor Hawaii) -estimated 1-minute sustained winds, Haiyan is tied with Meranti for being the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on record.

         The thirtieth named storm, thirteenth typhoon, and fifth super typhoon of the 2013 Pacific typhoon season, Haiyan originated from an area of low pressure several hundred kilometers east-southeast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia on November 2, 2013. Tracking generally westward, environmental conditions favored tropical cyclogenesis and the system developed into a tropical depression on the following day. After becoming a tropical storm and being named Haiyan at 00:00 UTC on November 4, the system began a period of rapid intensificationthat brought it to typhoon intensity by 18:00 UTC on November 5. By November 6, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed the system as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS); the storm passed over the island of Kayangel in Palau shortly after attaining this strength.

       Thereafter, Haiyan continued to intensify; at 12:00 UTC on November 7, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) upgraded the storm's maximum ten-minute sustained winds to 230 km/h (145 mph), the highest in relation to the storm. The Hong Kong Observatory put the storm's maximum ten-minute sustained winds at 285 km/h (180 mph)^[5] prior to landfall in the central Philippines, while the China Meteorological Administrationestimated the maximum two-minute sustained winds at the time to be around 78 m/s(meters per second)  (280 km/h or 175 mph). At the same time, the JTWC estimated the system's one-minute sustained winds at 315 km/h (195 mph), unofficially making Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone ever observed based on wind speed, a record which would later be surpassed by Hurricane Patricia in 2015 at 345 km/h (215 mph).^[6] Haiyan is also tied with Typhoon Meranti (Typhoon Ferdir) in 2016 as the most intense tropical cyclone in the Eastern Hemisphere by 1-minute sustained winds; several others have recorded lower central pressure readings. At 20:40 UTC on November 7, the eye of the typhoon made its first landfallin the Philippines at Guiuan, Eastern Samar at peak strength. Gradually weakening, the storm made five additional landfalls in the country before emerging over the South China Sea. Turning northwestward, the typhoon eventually struck northern Vietnam as a severe tropical storm on November 10. Haiyan was last noted as a tropical depression by the JMA on the following day. 

        The typhoon caused catastrophic destruction in the Visayas, particularly on Samar and Leyte. According to UN officials, about 11 million people were affected and many were left homeless.^[