Typhoon Tip is the largest and most intense
tropical cyclone on record. The nineteenth tropical storm and twelfth typhoon of the
1979 Pacific typhoon season, Tip developed out of a disturbance in the
monsoontrough on October 4 near
Pohnpei. Initially, a tropical storm to its northwest hindered the development and motion of Tip, though after it tracked further north Tip was able to intensify. After passing
Guam, it
rapidly intensified and reached peak winds of 305 km/h (190 mph) and a worldwide record low
sea-level pressure of 870
mbar (hPa, 25.69
inHg) on October 12. At its peak strength, it was also the largest tropical cyclone on record with a diameter of 2,220 km (1,380 mi). It slowly weakened as it continued west-northwestward, and later turned to the northeast under the influence of an approaching
trough. Tip made
landfall on southern Japan on October 19, and became an
extratropical cyclone shortly thereafter.
U.S. Air Force aircraft flew 60
weather reconnaissance missions into the typhoon, making Tip one of the most closely observed tropical cyclones. Rainwater from the typhoon breached a flood-retaining wall at a
United States Marine Corps training camp in the
Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, leading to a fire which killed 13 Marines and injured 68. Elsewhere in the country, the typhoon led to widespread flooding and 42 deaths, while offshore shipwrecks left 44 killed or missing. (
more...)
... that Black Loch in East Ayrshire, which has outflows draining in two directions, is connected to Loch o' th' Lowes and Creoch Loch by a manmade ditch?
... that the optometry and
dental schools of the defunct North Pacific College are still operating 65 years after the college closed?
... that the
Andrzej Fidyk's documentary Defilada about
North Korea, despite its anti-
totalitarian message, was initially praised both by communist Poland's censors and in North Korea itself?
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