Typhoon Rai:
The official death toll of Typhoon Rai (locally named Odette) which hit parts of the Philippines in mid-December, was raised to 388.
- Rai is the strongest storm to hit the disaster-prone archipelago this year (2021).
- Typhoons are a kind of storm. The storms, depending on where they occur, may be called hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones.
- Typhoons: In the China Sea and Pacific Ocean.
- Hurricanes: In the West Indian islands in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
- Tornados: In the Guinea lands of West Africa and southern USA.
- Willy-willies: In north-western Australia and
- Tropical Cyclones: In the Indian Ocean Region.
- The scientific name for all these kinds of storms is tropical cyclones.
- Tropical cyclones are intense circular storms that originate over the warm tropical oceans with speed more than 119 kilometres per hour and heavy rains.
- Tropical cyclones rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
- The Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) Tokyo – Typhoon Centre assigns a typhoon a name. The name ‘Rai’ is contributed by Micronesia.
