Friday, September 6

Super Typhoon Yagi is slamming southwestern China with heavy rain and winds of 150 mph, making it the second-strongest tropical cyclone of 2024.

Yagi began as a tropical depression on the eastern side of the Philippines, and it slowly strengthened as it moved northward. The storm made landfall on Luzon, the archipelago's largest island, as a tropical storm with winds of 50 mph on September 2, along with over 10 inches of rain, killing 13 people. From there, it moved into the South China Sea, which is extremely warm right now. Yagi quickly strengthened from a storm with 45 mph to a typhoon with winds of 80 mph in one afternoon, and further strengthened to maintain winds of 140 mph in another day. By the evening of September 4, it had become a super typhoon, packing winds of 150 mph, equivalent to a strong Category 4 storm in the Atlantic Ocean. That makes it the second-strongest tropical cyclone of 2024, after the Atlantic's Category 5 Hurricane Beryl.

Super Typhoon Yagi is now battering southwestern China, primarily the island of Hainan. However, the storm is extremely large, with the outer rain bands stretching over 300 miles away, delivering rain all the way in Hong Kong right now. Flights across Hong Kong and Macau were canceled, and the Hong Kong stock exchange has been closed over the past few days because of the gale-force winds and major thunderstorms that hit the area as Yagi moved by. They are expected to reopen soon, though, as the storm is rapidly moving away.

The storm has now made landfall near the city of Wenchang on Hainan Island, and will move north past the city of Haikou while battering both the Hainan and Guangdong provinces. Businesses, public transportation, markets, schools, and construction sites have all been shut down, and numerous flights out of both provinces have been canceled. This is a relatively rare event, as most strong tropical cyclones that make landfall in China are not carried near Hainan. In fact, this is only the tenth super typhoon since 1949 to make landfall on the island, and Yagi is the strongest typhoon to hit Hainan since the devastating Typhoon Rammasun in 2014.

From Hainan, it will move west before making its third and final landfall in northern Vietnam, where it is expected to go straight into the capital of Hanoi. Four airports, including Hanoi's major international airport, have been shut down before the storm, and residents are preparing for a big hit. Yagi will continue to move quickly, possibly impacting Laos as well before it fizzles out.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Dogs have over 300 million scent receptors in their noses, compared to the mere 400 receptors in the human olfactory system.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

(George Patton)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Gridiron (noun)- A gridiron is a football field. The word gridiron is also used sometimes to refer to a grate for broiling food (as in “put the steaks on the gridiron”) or something consisting of or covered with a network (as in “a gridiron of streets and avenues”).

In a Sentence: The book recounts the quarterback’s most glorious moments on the gridiron.