HALOLA, typhoon that we need to take a serious look on

     Hello eco-generation members. This is Chaeyun CHO, the ambassador of ROK. Let's start with a question. How's the weather in your country these days? In South Korea where I live in, summer has started but gloomy weather is continuing due to heavy rain. The temperature is so high and rainy seasons have contributed to humidness. Since eco-gen members live all around the world, I bet all of you would be experiencing different kinds of climates.

Yesterday, our 12^th typhoon, HALOLA perished, not affecting Korea. Weather forecasters assume that extremely hot weather would appear as a result of HALOLA's dissipate. (And,,, that is absolutely true :) ) Well, anyway, the interesting fact about HALOLA is that originally, it started as a "hurricane" but later has changed to "typhoon".

<Hurricane HALOLA>

     So what's the difference between typhoon and hurricane? Moreover, what are Hurricane, typhoon, cyclone, and willy-willy?

<Hurricane, Typhoon, Cyclone, Willy-Willy>

     The main difference between those four 'violent wind' is the occurrence region. Namely, their name is determined by its place. In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, "hurricane" is used. When is occurs in the Northwest Pacific it is called a "typhoon" and "cyclones" is generated in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Lastly, "willy-willy" is used in Australia. Since they are formed in different parts of the globe, they have some difference in size, period and so on.

<HALOLA route>

     So going back to HALOLA, it started in Pacific Ocean and moved west, crossing the date line. This is quite meaningful to our country since it is a first time to be actually affected by a storm that changed from hurricane to typhoon.

     The statistics show that lately, the occurrence of long distance typhoon has increased a lot. Scientists say that 'El Niño' has significantly contributed to typhoon. As you may know, 'El Niño' is a phenomenon of unusually warm water around equatorial Pacific region.

<Ocean temperature comparison 1997-2015>

     As you can see in the picture above, 'El Niño' is a serious problem that we need to pay more attention on. It not only affects stormy weathers but also give huge impact on heat, health risks and so on.

     Remember. Mother Nature offers the base of human life, however, if we exceed its self-purification ability, it can be very scary.