Typhoon Morakot

Typhoon Morakot has ravaged Taiwan, especially in the south near Kaohsiung. The storm brought more than 80 inches of rain and caused Taiwan's worst flooding in 50 years, triggering mudslides and decimating villages. The typhoon has also hit the Philippines, Japan and China. Search and rescue missions for hundreds of missing people in southern Taiwan are under way.

If you're not entirely sure what a typhoon actually is, well me too. There is an Asia Pacific typhoon season that I've always known about, and growing up I heard about typhoons in Taiwan on an annual basis, but I never had been in one until last year. I got caught in a typhoon last year in Taiwan and had my flight delayed by a day, but it wasn't nearly as bad as this year's. After my experience, I got curious as to what a typhoon actually was. Growing up in the States, I knew what tornadoes and hurricanes were, but I'd never heard of this country being hit by a typhoon. So last year I hit the internet and looked for an explanation of the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon.

Hurricanes and typhoons are exactly the same thing meteorologically: severe tropical cyclones that bring strong winds and heavy rains resulting in devastating floods (think Katrina). In this hemisphere they're called hurricanes; west of the date line, they're called typhoons. Generally, typhoons have stronger winds and heavier rains / floods than hurricanes because they spend more time developing wind speed and picking up moisture over expansive waters in the Pacific before making landfall. They can also trigger large tidal waves (tsunami) under the right conditions.

Typhoons form year-round but are most concentrated from July through November. They are by far the most intense storms on record. Just as a comparison, the most intense hurricane on record was Hurricane Wilma in 2005, tied for 18th all-time; the first 17 are all typhoons. They take a number of different paths, but generally hit Taiwan and China most often. Other countries frequently affected include the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and Korea.