The typhoon currently devastating the central Philippines is perhaps the strongest storm ever.
made landfall early Friday morning and continues to move into four other Philippine islands across the archipelago. With sustained winds of 195 mph and gusts as strong as 235 mph, Haiyan easily meets the threshold for a Category 5 hurricane, the highest category on the scale.
鈥淭he intensification of Super Typhoon Haiyan is being fueled by 鈥榠deal鈥 environmental conditions鈥攏amely low wind shear and warm ocean temperatures,鈥
It will take further analysis after the storm passes to establish whether it was a record, but the storm is already stronger than Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy when they made landfall in the United States. Hurricane Katrina’s top wind speed was 120 mph, it was only Category 1 when it made landfall in Louisiana, and Sandy, a mere post-tropical cyclone, topped-out at 80 mph when it landed in New Jersery.