Typhoon Molave: Vietnam | 30 Oct 2020
Why in News
Recently, Vietnam has been hit by one of its biggest storms in two decades - Typhoon Molave.
- Vietnam is prone to natural disasters in the rainy season between June and November, with central coastal provinces commonly impacted, but the storms have notably worsened in recent years.
Key Points
- Typhoon is a regionally specific name for a strong "tropical cyclone".
- Tropical cyclones are known as ‘typhoons’ in the northwest pacific ocean, hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, Willy-willies in north-western Australia and Tropical Cyclones in the Indian Ocean Region.
- A tropical cyclone is a generic term used by meteorologists to describe a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation.
- Tropical cyclones rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
- These are measured by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
- Naming of Typhoons: The Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) Tokyo - Typhoon Centre assigns a tropical cyclone a name from the five lists. The name ‘Molave’ is contributed by the Philippines.