LongWang hit the Central East Coast of Taiwan as what the Americans will classified as a Category 4 Hurricane (Katrina land fell at Category 4). The typhoon made its land fall with a maximum sustained wind of 225 kmh (140mph) which was also classified as a Super Typhoon.
The classification of the storm in numeric categories is of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
Category One:
Winds 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr).
Category Two:
Winds 96-110 mph (83-95 kt or 154-177 km/hr).
Category Three:
Winds 111-130 mph (96-113 kt or 178-209 km/hr).
Category Four:
Winds 131-155 mph (114-135 kt or 210-249 km/hr).
Category Five:
Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr).
Hurricanes and typhoons? What's the difference? Well the difference is purely geographical. A short answer will be that hurricanes are from the oceans around US, typhoons are typically from Western Pacific (East Asia). And all both are called Tropical Cyclones in meteorology.
This was my first account of a tropical cyclone and apparently for some others that was captured by a of Taiwan news channel. A reporter was approaching a group of people watching the waves, braving the pouring rain and strong gust. When approached and questioned, a person from the group said in Mandarin,
我们从马来西亚来的When asked why there are here (in the middle of the typhoon storm), they answered,
wo me si chong ma lai si ya la de
We are from Malaysia
马来西亚没有台风吗
ma lai si ya mei you tai fong ma
There are no typhoons in Malaysia
Who said Malaysians are not adventurous!
Longwang (龙王/龍王), or "Dragon King" in Chinese, though the name sounds scary, the typhoon was not named right after it was spotted but rather from a list of names contributed by a group of Asian countries.
And our own Malaysia contributed to one of this year's super typhoon: Super Typhoon Mawar.
Did you know that from around 1953-1977, hurricanes are having only female names? They were initially names of girl friends and wives of the people that found them. Hmmm...
Here is an article that explain why hurricanes are named in the first place.
kuancheen|taipei|20051002.0145
... braving for more storms
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