Worst Tropical Storm Event Ever?

[Hypognosis]

Typhoon Haiyan approaches the Philippines

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24846813

Is this the worst tropical storm on record? (You'll see this on the breakfast news and I'll catch up with you later in the day)

If we've only seen 0.5 C rise in global temperatures, so far, out of the 3 C predicted for 2050, what are your fears for the future, with regard to events like this?

Is it a 'blip' or are we beginning to witness a trend of 'worst ever' weather events?

[emmie]

i think these sorts of events have been happening over the centuries, some recorded most not as they were too far back, let us hope that it isn't nearly as bad, but going on some of the tsunamis, hurricanes one has witnessed on the news in recent years i fear for those caught up in it.

[emmie]

eye witness account,
http://www.smatch-international.org/PlinyLetters.html

[Hypognosis]

Thanks, emmie.

I enjoyed reading the Pliny letters. Did you mean to post them to this thread?

From your first reply, I gather that you see this as an 'outlier' in a limited, 150-year dataset.

Fair enough viewpoint. Do you drive a 4x4 or SUV, by any chance? ;-)

[humbersloop]

from this, Hypognosis, it seems that there was a cluster of "worse" storms in the '50s and '60s

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan-philippines-tropical-cyclones

but I can't find a proper time series to say either way if it's a blip

[Hypognosis]

Read it. Thanks Humbersloop.

--snip
An important thing to note though is that the Noaa have stated that the maximum sustained winds estimated for typhoons during the 1940s to 1960s were too strong.
--endsnip

There's the rub. The storms on record had their windspeeds estimated in one way (now reckoned to have been over-estimated, to boot) and the storms of the present day are assessed by satellite observations.

No ground based measurements available for the current storm and they reckon the wind guages would probably have been blown away.

Good to hear that the evacuations went smoothly. Fourth major storm this year so it seems they're used to the upheaval.

[humbersloop]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan-biggest-storms

there does seem to be a getting nastier underlying trend