Cyclone Pair Over West Pacific, Storm Chanthu And Conson Ravage Philippines, Taiwan

Pair of tropical storms in the West Pacific, Just about 1000km apart, are racing towards South China Sea. Tropical storm ‘Conson’ struck Eastern Samar province in the central Philippines on Monday. It is tracking northwest, parallel to the country’s east coast and heading for making another landfall over Northern- Central Luzon on Thursday. Capital city Manila is falling bang on its track and is likely to have a direct hit on 08^thSeptember, in the evening hours. Presently, the storm is centered at 11.9°N and 124°E, about 475km southeast of Manila. The storm is retaining its strength and moving with a speed of 15kmh.

Tropical storm Conson is packed with wind speed of about 100kmh, with potential of having 20feet wave height.  It is tracking almost entire length of Philippines, before entering South China Sea on 09^thSep. The storm is expected to become a typhoon and head for Chinese mainland. The 3^rd landfall is expected on 11^th-12^thSep.

Located in the Pacific ‘ Ring of Fire’, the Philippines is among the world’s most disaster prone  countries. Storms and typhoons keep striking till November, with a peak season in August- September. The other storm ‘Chanthu’, though in close proximity, will be tracking north of ‘Conson’ path without any threat to Philippines.

Tropical storm ‘ Chanthu’ is centered at 15.6°N and 136°E about 1500km southeast of Kadena. The storm is tracking westnorthwest, gathering strength, and is likely to become equivalent of Cat-I  hurricane in the next 24hr. Further. It is likely to intensify to Cat-II in 28hr and Cat-III in the next 72hr.  It is likely to cross abeam extreme northern tip of Philippines, keeping a safe distance of about 150km. It is likely to come closest to Taiwan over weekend.

Earlier, in 2004 also, a storm named Changthu, had travelled across central Philippines. On June05,2004, a depression crossed central Philippines and strengthened to a tropical storm ‘Changthu’ on 08^thJune, before entering South China Sea.The tropical storm headed westward to make landfall over Vietnam.

As per the track record, some of these storms and typhoons while moving across the South China Sea, do roll over countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The remnant of these do have a past precedence of cutting across Myanmar to enter in to Bay of Bengal. These also have the tendency to intensify thereafter and strike West Bengal and Odisha coast.