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Typhoon Amy was an intense and deadly tropical cyclone that struck areas of the central Philippines in December 1951. Impacting the archipelago during the 1951 eruption of Mount Hibok-Hibok, Amy exacerbated the effects of the volcano, greatly increasing the number of resulting deaths. The fifteenth named storm and fourteenth typhoon within the western Pacific Ocean that year, Amy developed from an area of low pressure near the Kwajalein Atoll on December 3. Tracking in a general westward direction, the storm quickly intensified to reach typhoon intensity the next day. However, the typhoon's asymmetricity resulted in a fluctuation of intensity over the following few days. Afterwards, Amy intensified to reach its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 220 km/h (140 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 950 mbar (hPa; 28.05 inHg) on December 8. Over the ensuing two days, Amy moved over several islands in the central Philippines before emerging in the South China Sea on December 11 as the equivalent of a minimal typhoon. Shortly after, the tropical cyclone executed a tight anticyclonic loop while oscillating in strength several times before eventually weakening and dissipating on December 17, just east of Vietnam. Amy was considered one of the worst typhoons to strike the Philippines on record. Making its initial landfall along with the concurrent eruption of Mount Hibok-Hibok on Camiguin, the typhoon disrupted volcanic relief operations and forced the displacement of victims already displaced by the volcano. Cebu City suffered the worst impacts of Amy – most of the city's buildings were heavily damaged, and 29 people died in the city. Strong winds and rainfall in the city associated with Amy also set records which still remain unbroken today. Damage there was estimated at 560 million Philippine pesos. Along the east coast of Leyte, where Amy initially struck, ninety percent of homes were destroyed, and a large swath of coconut plantations were wiped out. In Panay, located on the western side of the Philippines, at least a thousand homes were destroyed in 41 towns. Overall, Amy caused $30 million in damage, and at least 556 fatalities, though the final death toll may have been as high as 991, making the typhoon one of the deadliest in modern Philippine history. An additional 50,000 people were displaced. ==Meteorological history== The origins of Typhoon Amy can be traced back to a low-pressure area first detected over Kwajalein at 0500 UTC on November 29. Tracking westward, the Fleet Weather Center in Guam began to monitor vorticity for potential development, assigning the numeric designation ''11122'' to the tropical system. Late on December 2, a routine weather reconnaissance flight unexpectedly intercepted the disturbance and detected unusually strong westerly winds, a characteristic typically indicative of a tropical cyclone. As such, the flight, named ''Vulture George'', was rerouted to investigate the area. After finding conclusive evidence of a closed low-pressure area, the Fleet Weather Center in Guam classified the disturbance as a tropical storm with winds of 100 km/h (60 mph). At the time, Amy had two separate centers of circulation, resulting in an asymmetrical wind field. Following tropical cyclogenesis, the fast-moving tropical cyclone quickly intensified, reaching the equivalent of a Category 1 on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Between December 4 and 5, however, Amy briefly weakened back to tropical storm intensity before restrengthening. Steady intensification followed afterwards, with the typhoon reaching the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane by 0000 UTC on December 6. By this time, the storm had slowed in forward speed. Later that day, the two, formerly separate circulation centers merged, resulting in an eye spanning 26 km (16 mi) in diameter.〔 At 1200 UTC on December 8, Amy reached its peak intensity with winds of 220 km/h (140 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 950 mbar (hPa; 28.05 inHg), which would classify it as a modern-day Category 4 typhoon. At the same time, the tropical cyclone began to track slightly southwestward.〔 At 0600 UTC the following day, Amy made its first landfall on southern Samar with an intensity equivalent of a Category 2 typhoon. Over the next two days, the typhoon weakened and moved over several islands in the Philippines including Leyte, Cebu, and Panay before emerging into the South China Sea on December 11.〔〔 In the South of China Sea on December 11, Amy quickly slowed in forward motion and began to execute a cyclonic loop. Late that day, the typhoon strengthened back to Category 2 intensity, and as such concurrently attained a tertiary peak intensity with winds of 160 km/h (100 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 968 mbar (hPa; 28.59 inHg). Late on December 13, Amy weakened back to a Category 1 typhoon for a transient period of time before restrengthening and reaching a quaternary peak intensity as a Category 3 typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h).〔 Afterwards, the typhoon began to weaken, and at 0900 UTC on December 17, the Fleet Weather Center in Guam issued their last bulletin on the tropical cyclone. Upon the issuance of the last advisory, Amy set records for most typhoon bulletins issued at 58, and most reconnaissance fixes at 25.〔 However, Amy continued to persist through the next day before degenerating into a remnant low-pressure area late on December 18. The following day, the associated remnants of Amy dissipated east of Vietnam.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Typhoon Amy (1951)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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