WunderBlog Archive » Category 6™

Category 6 has moved! See the latest from Dr. Jeff Masters and Bob Henson here.

Vietnam bashed by Xangsane; Isaac headed to Newfoundland

By: Dr. Jeff Masters, 4:22 PM GMT on October 01, 2006

Typhoon Xangsane slammed ashore the central Vietnamese coast just south of Dan Nang Sunday morning as a Category 2 storm. The eye passed just south of Dan Nang, sparing Vietnam's 4th largest city the worst of the eyewall's winds. Da Nang had its winds rise to 63 mph with higher gusts at the peak of the storm, and the weather station was able to stay operational throughout the typhoon. At least ten deaths have been reported in Vietnam so far, and thousands of houses were reported damaged or destroyed. Xangsane is not expected to be a prodigious rainmaker. Forecast 24-hour forecast rain amounts from NOAA's Satellite Analysis Branch (Figure 2) were mostly 2-8 inches. Xangsane has degenerated to a remnant low today, and advisories are no longer being issued on the storm.

In the Philippines, the death toll is 76, with 69 people still missing. Power is still out to over 12 million people on the Philippines' main island of Luzon, including nearly half the residents of the capital of Manila.


Figure 1. Typhoon Xangsane at landfall in Vietnam. Image credit: NOAA/NESDIS.


Figure 2. Expected 24-hour rain amount from Typhoon Xangsane. Image credit: NOAA.

Hurricane Isaac
Hurricane Isaac has peaked in intensity, and is now weakening thanks to higher wind shear from a trough of low pressure to its northwest. Isaac is expected to get absorbed by the trough on Monday and make the transition to a powerful extratropical storm. Isaac will bring winds near hurricane force to southeastern Newfoundland on Monday night. Isaac's impact on Newfoundland will probably be similar to that caused by the remains of Hurricane Florence in September--Florence destroyed one home and caused scattered power outages and minor damage.

Elsewhere in the tropics
An area of intense thunderstorms has developed about 600 miles southwest of the Cape Verdes Islands. This area is under about 15 knots of wind shear today, and the shear is expected to increase to 30 knots tomorrow, which should halt any development. Elsewhere, there's nothing to remark upon.

I'll have an update Monday morning.

Jeff Masters

The views of the author are his/her own and do not necessarily represent the position of The Weather Company or its parent, IBM.