Supertyphoons to Strike Japan Due to Global Warming
Increasingly powerful “supertyphoons” will strike Japan if [because] global warming continues to affect [completely mess-up] weather patterns in the western Pacific Ocean, scientists say.
Supercomputer simulations show there will be more typhoons with winds of 179 miles (288 kilometers) per hour—considered an F3 on the five-level Fujita Scale—by 2074. By definition, supertyphoons carry winds of at least 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour.
Such storms would be more destructive than Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into U.S. states along the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005.
[However, the supertyphoons] will pack a far higher concentration of energy, wind speed, and overall destructive power. The tempests would cause a great deal of damage across Japan, which is unprepared for such violent weather systems.
Ferocious winds would level homes and damage infrastructure such as bridges and power lines. Severe floods would also inundate low-lying areas.
The most destructive typhoon to strike Japan to date was Typhoon Vera, which barreled across the country in September 1959.
Known in Japan as the Isewan Typhoon, the storm came ashore in Ise Bay near Nagoya and killed 5,238 people.
