Typhoon Wutip blew ashore over central Vietnam on September 30, 2013, forcing thousands of evacuations. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of the storm at 10:35 a.m. local time (3:35 UTC), several hours before landfall. At the time, Wutip was a category 2 storm with winds of 90 knots (170 kilometers/hour or 100 miles/hour). It weakened before landfall.
According to news reports, Wutip left 75 Chinese fishermen missing and caused flooding and structural damage in Vietnam. The storm was expected to move west over Laos and Thailand, where it could compound ongoing flooding.
References & Resources
- Associated Press (2013, September 30) Tropical storm Wutip lashes Vietnam’s coast. ABC News. Accessed September 30, 2013.
- Associated Press (2013, September 30) Typhoon Wutip: 75 missing off coast of China; Vietnam preps for storm. The Weather Channel. Accessed September 30, 2013.
- Unisys Weather (2013, September 30) Typhoon-2 Wutip. Accessed September 30, 2013.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
