'Yolanda' most powerful cyclone in history to make landfall?

MANILA, Philippines -Foreign and local meteorologists have taken a keen interest in super typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) and observed that it may be the strongest cyclone to make a landfall in history.

Seattle-based meteorologist Morgan Palmer is among those who believe that Yolanda may be accorded the superlative.

"Do I think Haiyan will be the strongest in recorded history to make a landfall? Probably. But we may never know actual maximum winds," Palmer said on his Twitter account Thursday.

Although Palmer is not one to settle on satellite estimates, Tenessee storm chaser Karen Rome has a theory.

"It is so far the strongest to make landfall at approx. 195 mph," she said, replying to Palmer on the microblogging site.

University of the Philippines disaster scientist Mahar Lagmay, responsible for the Department of Science and Technology's online Project NOAH, has been following the cyclone since it was still a minor storm over the Pacific.

"(It is) possible the most powerful storm in recorded history," he said on Friday on his Twitter page.
 

Bilog na bilog pa rin ang mata ni #YolandaPH . Possibly the most powerful storm in recorded history! pic.twitter.com/J1GWyAF1Qn

— Mahar Lagmay (@nababaha) November 7, 2013

State weather agency PAGASA said in its  5 a.m. bulletin on Friday, Yolanda sustains maximum winds of 235 kph near the center and a gustiness of up to 275 kph.

According to the Hurricane Research Division of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the most powerful tropical cyclone in history was Tropical Cyclone Olivia which barreled through Australia in 1996, with 407 kph winds.

Super typhoon Nancy struck the Northwest Pacific in 1961 with winds near 343 kph.  However, modern research shows that the cyclone estimates at the time were unreliable and yielded unrealistically high records.

In the Philippines, several cyclones have been recorded with winds speeds greater than 240 kph, such as Reming (320 kph) in 2006, Sening (275 kph) in 1970 and Rosing (260 kph) in 1995.

Slower-moving Nitang in 1984, however, was the most fatal typhoon to be recorded, causing the deaths of1,363 people, the Ateneo de Manila-based Manila Observatory said in a study released on Thursday.

"Typhoon Yolanda could cause catestrophic damages especially in provinces in Visayas and islands in Southern Luzon, as well as parts of Northern Mindanao," the study concludes.

American extreme storm chaser Jim Edds went to Tacloban City to shoot a documentary on Yolanda. Tacloban is directly on the storm's way.

"I keep telling everyone here how powerful the typhoon is but they don't seem to comprehend what's coming," he said.