Since he began keeping records of typhoons in 1951, there has never been a record of one crossing the Korean peninsula like Typhoon Khanun. From Okinawa in Japan, rising north to disappear into China, this tropical cyclone put the Asia-Pacific region on alert for several days.
The images taken from the ground are shocking, but the one taken by a NASA astronaut from space gives an idea of ??the dimensions and strength of this typhoon. The capture was taken off the south of Nagoya, Japan, from the International Space Station as it orbited over the Pacific.
Khanun is the sixth typhoon of the season in the Pacific, which was later downgraded to a tropical storm while still passing Japan. In the countries through which it passed, the authorities issued alerts for rain and flooding. Specifically, the affected areas have been the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, the Korean peninsula, China and the far east of Russia.
In total, Khanun has left 13 dead, 115 injured and 16 missing people. The damages have been valued at 89.1 million dollars. It came to be classified as a category 4 typhoon. The maximum is in category 5. The Philippine administration described it as the second “super typhoon” of the season.
Just when the typhoon was going to enter South Korea, the World Scout Convention was taking place. Thousands of young people had to be evacuated. Some 36,000 participants will be transferred by bus to areas that are far from the path of the typhoon. Just before the arrival of the cyclone, the country was living through one of the strongest heat waves in its history.
Khanun was raging from July 11 until it dissipated on August 11. For this reason he has been described as “powerful, erratic and long lasting”. China had to evacuate more than 1,200 people in Heilongjiang province and all activities had to stop. In Russia, where the cyclone ended, 21 municipalities declared an emergency.
A few days before, also in the Asia-Pacific region, Typhoon Doksuri, also a category 4, had passed. This was one of the harshest that China has suffered in recent years.
In recent years, the scientific world has debated whether the increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes/cyclones (the first are those that occur in the Atlantic and the second in the Pacific) has something to do with climate change. . There are those who believe that there is enough evidence to link them and others who are still cautious and think that more research is needed.
What most scientists agree on is that these storms are increasingly violent due to climate change, due to the rise in sea and air temperatures. During its formation, a hurricane collects water from the sea, which is transported and later falls as rain. The hotter it is, the more water evaporates, causing torrential rains and more severe flooding.
If, on top of that, the sea level continues to rise due to climate change, the tidal waves that accompany a hurricane will become increasingly difficult to stop and will cause more extensive flooding.
In July, the United Nations warned the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that for at least the next four decades there will be more and more heat waves, floods, droughts and hurricanes, and has urged regional governments to establish systems of early warning.
