Tropical Storm Kai-tak dropped heavy rain on places in the Philippines during the past several days.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Kai-tak was located at latitude 12.1\u00b0N and longitude 126.8\u00b0E which put it about 150 miles (240 km) east-northeast of Tacloban, Philippines.\u00a0 Kai-tak was moving toward the northwest at 10 m.p.h. (16 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 996 mb.<\/p>\n
The distribution of thunderstorms around Tropical Storm Kai-Tak remains asymmetrical.\u00a0 Kai-tak is south of an upper level ridge which is producing easterly winds which are blowing toward the top of the tropical storm.\u00a0 Those winds are causing moderate vertical wind shear and most of the thunderstorms are developing in the western half of the circulation.\u00a0 The magnitude of the vertical wind shear fluctuates as the speed of the upper level winds increases or decreases.\u00a0 Changes in the magnitude of the wind shear contributes to fluctuations in the intensity of the thunderstorms.\u00a0 When the shear is stronger, most of the storms develop in the outer portion of the circulation of Kai-tak.\u00a0 When the upper level winds slow, thunderstorms are able to develop closer to the western core of the tropical storm.\u00a0 Daytime warming of the surface of some of the islands in the Philippines may increase the local instability, which also contributes to the formation of storms over those islands.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Kai-tak moved very little during the past two days.\u00a0 As a result, heavy rain fell repeatedly over portions of Samar, Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, Negros, Panay, Masbate and southeastern Luzon.\u00a0 The heavy rain is creating the potential for floods and mudslides in those areas.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Kaitak will move through an environment that is only marginally favorable for development.\u00a0 Kai-tak will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 However, the upper level ridge will continue to cause moderate vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Kai-tak could intensify a little during the next 24 hours, but the wind shear will limit the potential for strengthening.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Kai-tak is likely to weaken when the center of circulation passes over islands in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
The subtropical ridge north of Kai-tak is steering the tropical storm toward the northwest.\u00a0 The ridge is forecast to strengthen during the weekend and it is likely to steer Tropical Storm Kai-tak more toward the west during the next 24 to 36 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track the center of Kai-tak could reach Samar in the next 12 to 18 hours.\u00a0 The center could then move near Masbate and Panay.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Kai-tak will continue to drop locally heavy rain on places in Samar, Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, Panay, Negros, Masbate and southern Luzon for several more days.\u00a0 The heaviest rain will fall in locations where the wind pushes air up the slopes of mountains.\u00a0 The potential for floods and mudslides will increase as more rain falls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Storm Kai-tak dropped heavy rain on places in the Philippines during the past several days.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Kai-tak was located at latitude 12.1\u00b0N and longitude 126.8\u00b0E which put it about 150 miles (240 km) east-northeast of Tacloban, Philippines.\u00a0 Kai-tak was moving toward the northwest at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[910,913,914,912,103,604,917,915,916,296,96,909,911],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5279,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277\/revisions\/5279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}