Waiting on the wind

Like the stillness in the wind
'Fore the hurricane begins,
The hour when the ship comes in.

Bob Dylan, When the ship comes in

Well, I guess our ship is about to come in. It’s 4.45pm now in Manila and there is a sort of eerie calm about the dark and murky old place. A stillness in the wind, as Bob said.

Here’s an infrared image of super typhoon Renming (which has hit Bicol and is expected to reach Manila about noon tomorrow). Oh boy.

I guess in a few hours it will be time to put away Bob Dylan and get out the Graham Parker:

And I know a howlin' wind runs through here
Blowin' every day
Yeah a howlin' wind runs through here
Takes my breath away

I'm going out for a walk to see how the land lies.

630pm. The Inquirer reports that typhoon Renming has veered south and will therefore cross Luzon at Batangas. That's good news for the capital, but I hope no fishermen are caught in its wake. Meanwhile, residents of Catanduanes, the super typhoon's first landfall described the winds as "so strong it felt like an earthquake".

Comments

[howie]

Hmm, who named the typhoon Durian? That's what I'm reading elsewhere. Who decides these things? Why Renming and not Restituta?

[torn]

According to "Digital typhoon" (http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/help/tcnames.html.en#2.4) an international group of wise men meets every year to decide on a list of names, which are then doled out as the typhoon happens.

Ther is also an "Asian name" for each typhoon, determined by the Typhoon Committee for the Western North Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea (http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/jma-eng/jma-center/rsmc-hp-pub-eg/tyname.html).

As we know, it doesn't stop there, because the Philippines has its own list (as far as I can see, it is the only country to do this). I believe this list is alphabetical (i.e., milenyo was followed by Paeng, and then by Renming, with some minor ones filling in the gaps).

Durian is still a pretty weird name though -- perhaps next year we'll have Typhoon Fart?