Half of the roughly 20 tropical cyclones expected to form in the western Pacific Ocean through September this year are predicted to hit land in east Asian nations, forecasters said on Friday, making for a season that is busier than usual.
Tropical cyclones, also known as typhoons and hurricanes, can pack wind speeds ranging from 63 kilometres an hour to 250 kph, and the accompanying rain and storm surges can devastate coastal regions.
Such storms have wrought havoc running into damages of more than $175 billion across Asia in the past decade, international disaster database Em-Dat shows.
Five storms each are forecast to hit land in the regions of Eastern China and Taiwan, southern China and Vietnam, and the Philippines, said weather forecasters at the City University of Hong Kong, while Japan and Korea may experience only two.
That total exceeds the region's 30-year average of 13.5 cyclones in the months from April to September, according to the forecast.
"The number of tropical cyclones predicted to form between April 1 and September 3 is near to above-normal," the university's Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre added in its forecast.
Global warming is increasingly making storms more ferocious, atmospheric scientists warn, even if their total number is expected to remain the same or decrease in future.
Rising air and sea surface temperatures help fuel stronger storms, with the potential for faster wind speeds and heavier rain.
With a temperature higher than the global average, the western Pacific Ocean experiences more storms than any other part of the world.
In mid-April, Surigae, the year's first supertyphoon, glanced off the Philippines, forcing the evacuation of more than 100,000 people.
But the majority of storms develop after July.
Last month the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast an above-normal 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began on June 1.
From a total of 13 to 20 tropical storms in 2021, it forecast between three and five major hurricanes would pack winds with sustained speeds of at least 178 kph, while six to 10 would have wind speeds of at least 119 kph.
Abdul Jabar Qahraman was meeting supporters in his campaign office in the southern Afghan province of Helmand when a bomb hidden under a sofa exploded on Wednesday.
The blast in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah killed the Afghan election candidate and at least another three people, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak told reporters. Another three were wounded, while three suspects were detained, he said.
The Taliban – which controls much of Helmand and has vowed to disrupt the October 20 parliamentary elections – claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mr Qahraman was at least the 10th candidate killed so far during the campaign season, and the second from Lashkar Gah this month. Another candidate, Saleh Mohammad Asikzai, was among eight people killed in a suicide attack last week. Most of the slain candidates were murdered in targeted assassinations, including Avtar Singh Khalsa, the first Afghan Sikh to run for the lower house of the parliament.
The same week the Taliban warned candidates to withdraw from the elections. On Wednesday the group issued fresh warnings, calling on educational workers to stop schools from being used as polling centres.
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
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