Tropical Depression 23W
Another one......
New system develops near Philippines
Weather continues to play Grinch to the Philippines around the holiday period, as a new tropical cyclone, the 23rd numbered storm of the northwest Pacific season, spawned overnight Saturday.
It’s heading toward the northeast tip of the country’s southernmost Mindanao island, with landfall expected early Monday morning, packing sustained 40-mph winds and 52-mph gusts at its center.
Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasts 23W to track well south of Metro Manila and the former Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station – 290 miles south of Manila at about 2 a.m. Wednesday, 330 miles south of Clark Free Economic Zone about 3 hours later, and 300 miles south of Subic Bay Free Port at about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
At this point, 23W is not forecast to strengthen beyond tropical-storm strength. But as with all tropical cyclones that strike the Philippines regardless of category, rain always looms as the biggest threat, particularly in low-lying areas, both in the countryside and in metropolitan areas where drainage is minimal and flash-flooding frequent.
Occasional moderate to heavy rainfall is forecast for Mindanao and Eastern Visayas and winds between 20 and 40 mph are forecast within 36 hours, the Philippine Atmospheric Geological and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported via the Filipino news Web site Inquirer.net.
If it remains on its JTWC forecast track, 23W should then exit the central Philippines islands, pass about 45 miles north of Puerto Princesa around early evening Wednesday, then head into the South China Sea in the general direction of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and perhaps make second landfall there sometime New Year’s weekend.
The new storm is headed toward a country still cleaning up from Super Typhoon Hagupit, which on Dec. 7 slammed into eastern Samar island as a Category 3-equivalent storm and devastated it and other islands close by. At least 27 people were killed, 1.5 million were evacuated to shelters or higher ground, at least 13,000 homes were completely destroyed and 23,000 more damaged by Hagupit.
If it becomes a named storm, 23W would be called Jangmi, a Korean word for rose.
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