Analysis on the track of Typhoon Rammasun into the South China Sea

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1001-909X.2016.01.001

Abstract

Abstract: Typhoon Rammasun was the strongest typhoon that hit the South China in the past 41 years since 1973. It increased rapidly over the South China Sea (SCS) before the landfall. In early summer, the SCS is warm enough to support the increase of a typhoon in every year. However, the Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) which steers the trajectories of tropical storms in the western Pacific deviates most tropical storms from the SCS. But, recently, the WPSH experiences a westward extension. Analysis shows that WPSH in early summer of 2014 took a more southward and more westward position than it did in the past several decades. As a result, Typhoon Rammasun was guided into the SCS through Philippine, which was an uncommon tropical storm track in July. In the SCS, Typhoon Rammasun was nourished by the warm ocean and became a super typhoon within only 26 hours. As the implication of this study, if the westward extension of WPSH remains and continues, it is reasonable to expect that more tropical storms enter the warm SCS and get intensified in early summer. Consequently, the South China is likely to be more vulnerable to devastating typhoons.

Key words: super typhoon, Rammasun, South China Sea, Western Pacific Subtropical High, South China

CLC Number:

P444

DONG Hang, JIANG Liang-hong, ZHANG Xiang-ming, ZHOU Lei. Analysis on the track of Typhoon Rammasun into the South China Sea[J]. Journal of Marine Sciences, 2016, 34(1): 1-7.

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