Pagasa to officially use ‘super typhoon’ category in 2015

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) will adopt the “super typhoon” (STY) category starting 2015.

In a post in the state-run Panahon TV website published Friday, Pagasa said that tropical cyclones classified under the “super typhoon” category have “maximum sustained winds of more than 220 kilometers per hour or more than 61.1 meters per second. STY is as powerful as 120 nautical miles per hour.”

Pagasa said that the revision in its tropical cyclone categories would help the people to realize the intensity of an incoming storm and “escalate the sense of urgency and community response in times of an approaching storm.”

Before the addition of the STY category, Pagasa only utilized three official tropical cyclone categories: Tropical Depression, Tropical Storm, and Typhoon.

The change was adopted days before the first year anniversary commemoration of the onslaught of “super typhoon” Yolanda on November 8 which left over 6,000 people dead.

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