Pagasa updates tropical cyclone

classification system
By: Frances Mangosing - Reporter / @FMangosingINQ
INQUIRER.net / 04:09 PM May 20, 2015

SIGNAL No. 5 is now part of the state weather bureau’s public storm warnings.

Dr. Vicente Malano, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration’s acting administrator, noted that for the past 10 years, the Philippines has
experienced a number of extremely damaging tropical cyclones.

Public Storm Warning Signal No. 5 is for typhoons with more than 220 kilometers per hour
of wind speed, which is also the same as Super Typhoons.

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The new public storm warning signal system, signed last May 18, is as follows:

PSWS No. 1 – tropical cyclone winds of 30-60 kph are expected within the next 36 hours

PSWS No. 2 – tropical cyclone winds of 61-120 kph are expected within the next 24 hours
PSWS No. 3 – tropical cyclone winds of 121-170 kph are expected within the next 18 hours
PSWS No. 4 – tropical cyclone winds of 171-220 kph are expected within the next 12 hours
PSWS No. 5 – tropical cyclone winds of more than 220 kph are expected within 12 hours

The weather bureau also updated its tropical cyclone classification system.

Effective May 1 this year, the new tropical cyclone categories are:

Tropical Depression — a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of up to 61

kilometers per hour or less than 33 nautical miles per hour (knots).

Tropical Storm — a tropical cyclone with maximum wind speed of 62 to 88 kph or 34-47
knots.

Severe Tropical Storm — a tropical cyclone with maximum wind speed of 89 to 117 kph or
48 – 63 knots.

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Typhoon — a tropical cyclone with maximum wind speed of 118 to 220 kph or 64-120
knots.

Super Typhoon — a tropical cyclone with maximum wind speed exceeding 220 kph or more
than 120 knots.
Rene Paciente, weather forecaster from Pagasa, said this is the first time they will officially
include the Severe Tropical Storm and Super Typhoon categories in the public storm warning
list.

The Severe Tropical Storm has long been used in shipping advisories but not in weather
bulletins. The Super Typhoon, meanwhile, has been used in recent times but was not
officially a cyclone category then, he said.

He said these new categories have been included to adjust to the changing times. AC

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PAGASA now has four cyclone categories

By Clift Daluz, CNN Philippines

Updated 10:24 AM PHT Thu, April 2, 2015

(CNN Philippines) — The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services

Administration (PAGASA) has officially adopted the super typhoon (STY) category to
classify a tropical cyclone.
The need to have the super typhoon category is to have an emphasis on the strength and
intensity of the tropical cyclone and the severity of its impact on the community, the state-run
weather bureau said in a release dated March 24.

Before the revised classification, PAGASA only used three categories to classify storms.

The term super typhoon was widely utilized by the local media to refer to powerful typhoons
like Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people and devastated parts of
the Visayas.

Tropical cyclones are now classified in four categories: tropical depression (TD), tropical
storm (TS), typhoon (TY), and super typhoon.

A tropical depression has maximum sustained winds of up to 61 kilometers per hour (kph),
while tropical storm will have sustained winds of 62 to 118 kph.

A typhoon, on the other hand, has wind speeds ranging from 118 to 220 kph, while a super
typhoon will have sustained winds of more than 220 kph.