Month: September 2012

It’s Monday morning about 9 o’clock and we’re getting some heavy rain and high winds, probably gusting around 65 mph. The typhoon is still a bit off shore, but will make landfall soon to the east of us. What’s really ridiculous is that our classes were not canceled! Totally irresponsible, if you ask me. If someone gets nailed by flying debris, the university and the Language Center shouldn’t be surprised to get hit by a big lawsuit. I took a video earlier this morning, and it should be ready to post in a little while. I’ll get it up during my next break between classes.

Just a quick update on the latest news of the approach of Typhoon Sanba to the Korean Peninsula and especially to Yeosu.

Not much has changed about the forecast except that Sanba is now expected to be about a Category 1 Typhoon when it makes landfall here, and I do mean here. Right now it looks like it will come ashore about 30 miles west of Yeosu around mid-morning or early afternoon on Monday, though we’ll start feeling the effects long before that.

Here’s the most recent Korean Meteorological Administration map of the track of Sanba. Notice that little dot on the south coast of the Peninsula? Yup, that’s Yeosu.

Path of Typhoon Sanba

Doing some quick reading, I found that a special typhoon alert will be issued for the entire country by Monday, with officials expecting this to be the most dangerous and devastating storm since Typhoon Maemi back in 2003.

One of the biggest worries is about the heavy rainfall that is expected. According to the Korea Herald, “Jeju Island and the southern [that’s us] and eastern coasts, in particular, are projected to see heavy rain of more than 50 millimeters per hour and strong winds measuring 50 meters per second between Sunday afternoon and dawn Tuesday . . .

Yikes, that’s a lot of rain and it’s predicted to start coming down heavily beginning tomorrow afternoon and into Monday morning. I’ll keep updating as the situation warrants.

Yes, another typhoon, Sanba, is heading our way, the third one in about 3 weeks. The other two kind of fizzled out as they hit cooler water near Korea, so Yeosu wasn’t terribly pummeled. Sanba, however, looks like a real doozy, as it’s already been afforded super typhoon status and may be as high as a category 3 storm as it blows ashore next Monday, probably. Here’s a look at the latest predicted track from Weather Underground.

Predicted path of Sanba

If it actually stays on this track, it will come very near Yeosu. The original computer model predicted that Sanba would come ashore directly on top of Yeosu, but that has been modified a bit. Still, as of this morning, we’re pretty much in the cross hairs of this monster storm. As you can see from the graphic if you click on it, maximum winds are at 170 miles per hour and gusting up to 205 mph. That’s really stunning! Let’s hope everyone stays safe in the next few days. I’ll keep you up to date as this thing approaches. More later.