Philippines Typhoons & Severe Weather
No country is struck by more tropical cyclones than the Philippines. On average around twenty enter its waters each year and eight or nine make landfall, alongside monsoon floods, landslides, and the occasional tornado. Here is the full picture.
Why the Philippines is so exposed
The archipelago sits squarely in the western North Pacific, the most active tropical-cyclone basin in the world, and directly in the path storms take as they track west and northwest. Warm seas, thousands of low-lying coastal communities, steep terrain prone to landslides, and dense river deltas combine to make almost every kind of severe weather dangerous here. Locally, a typhoon is called a bagyo.
The hazards, explained
Typhoons (bagyo)
The defining threat. The Philippines endures more landfalling tropical cyclones than anywhere else, including some of the strongest ever recorded — most infamously Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.
Wind signal warnings
PAGASA issues Tropical Cyclone Wind Signals from 1 to 5 to tell each area how strong the winds will be and how soon. Knowing the signals is the key to preparing in time.
The monsoons
The wet habagat (southwest monsoon) and drier amihan (northeast monsoon) shape the year — and habagat rains, sometimes enhanced by distant typhoons, cause massive flooding.
Flooding & landslides
Intense rain on steep, deforested slopes and in crowded river basins produces deadly flash floods and landslides, as Metro Manila learned during Tropical Storm Ketsana (Ondoy) in 2009.
Tornadoes (buhawi)
Yes — the Philippines sees waterspouts and small tornadoes, known locally as buhawi, though they are far less deadly than the typhoons.