HICKAM AFB, Hawaii-- "Typhoon alley" is about ready to open for business again, a business which annually costs millions of dollars and hundreds of lives from Guam to Tokyo.
The Pacific spawns more typhoons than any other area in the world.
Born close to the equator between the Marshall and Philippine islands, the monster-storms-- some have been known to cover an area of 1.000 miles wide-- initially churns westward toward mainland China or Southeast Asia, then usually curve northward over or around the Philippines and toward Taiwan, Okinawa, Korea or Japan and finally northeast to die out in the extreme North Pacific. this almost 5 million-square mile area is "typhoon alley.".
The storms have occurred during all seasons. However, records during the last 50 years reveal that 65 per cent of all Pacific typhoons have whirled northward during July, August, September and October. Historically the worst month with 20 per cent of all typhoons is September.
Typhoons are fearsome and lethal.
In the Pacific it falls to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Guam, a combined Air Force/Navy operation, to track and forcast Typhoons.
The 1st Weather Wing's Air Force Weather Central at Fuchu AS, Japan is the Guam unit's alternate tracking center and major customer.
When a suspect area is discovered, reconnaissance flights are sent to investigate. These crews from the Navy's AEWRON 1 on Guam, the U.S. Air Force's 54th Weather Recon. Sq on Guam or the 56th Weather Recon. Sq. at Yokota AB Japan, fly their planes in, around and sometimes even in the suspect areas gathering vital data and radar photos. A storm is stalked until it dies out.
By international agreement the storms are given names and are classified according to intensity.
A storm of less then 35 knots is a tropical depression; 35 knots to 64 knots is a tropical storm; above 65 knots it is a tropical cyclone or typhoon.
The storms are born in moist, hot air over the open ocean. When opposing tradewinds whirl about each other a cyclonic motion is triggered. This twisting most severe just off the Equator, pushes air toward the center of the mass, forcing the moist, hot air there to rise.
This lifting action causes the moisture-laden air to condense. Heat released during condensation further warms the rotating air which in turn becomes lighter and therefore rise more swiftly. A dangerous chain reaction has begun.
As the moist, tropical air is drawn in to replace the rising air, more condensation takes place. The air inside the whirling mass rises faster and a violent killer is born.
Besides the Pacific, there are seven other areas in which typhoons occur. In many of these the storms are not called typhoons but they are just as deadly.
In the North Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico a sever tropical cyclone is called a "hurricane." In Haiti they are called "taino" and on the west coast of Mexico "cordonazo" is the local name. Other regional names are "baguio" or "baruio" in the Philippines, "cyclone" in the Indian Ocean and "willy-willy" in Australia.
Call them what you will, the monster storms are a definite threat to anyone living in "typhoon ally.".
The odds favor your being affected by at least on storm before Christmas.
