October 22, 2015

Koppu Kills 12, Dumps 30+ Inches of Rain on Philippines; Olaf Hits Category 3

By: Jeff Masters and Bob Henson ,

4:43 PM GMT on October 19, 2015

Tropical Storm Koppu has weakened below typhoon strength, but is still bringing dangerous torrential rains to much of the Philippines' Luzon Island as the storm drifts north-northeastwards at 4 mph along the west coast of the island. Koppu, which is known as "Lando" in the Philippines, hit the east-coast province of Aurora around 1:00 am Sunday local time at peak strength, with sustained winds of 150 mph and a central pressure of 920 mb. Fortunately, that part of Luzon is fairly sparsely populated; the death toll from the typhoon stood at a relatively low twelve people on Monday morning. However, damage was reported to nearly 100% of the houses and infrastructure in the city of Casiguran (population 27,000), near where the storm made landfall, and some towns are still cut off from communications. At least 9 million residents of Luzon--close to 10 percent of the population of the Philippines--were without power at the height of the storm on Sunday afternoon local time (midnight Saturday night EDT), according to data from the Philippines National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council.

For reference, below are the global and hemisphere records for heaviest rainfall observed in various time periods, as certified by the World Meteorological Organization and archived by Arizona State University .

24 hours: 1.825m (71.8"), January 7-8, 1966, Foc-Foc, La Réunion
48 hours: 2.493m (98.15"), June 15-16, 1995, Cherrapunji, India
72 hours: 3.930m (154.72"), February 24-26, 2007, Cratère Commerson, La Réunion
96 hours: 4.936m (194.33"), February 24-27, 2007, Cratère Commerson, La Réunion

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