11.21.2007 6:32 AM

Category 2 Hurricane to Strike Philippines

Cyclone Mitag Gaining Strength

Satellite image of Cyclone Mitag near the Philippines.

Cyclone Mitag is forecast to strike the Philippines with Category 1 hurricane strength.

Photo: U.S. Navy

By Dan Shapley

A tropical storm now, Cyclone Mitag is expected to gain strength and slam the Philippines with Category 2 strength -- with winds of 103 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Cyclone Lando, which hit the Philippines with tropical storm strength earlier this week, left at least 11 dead.

The storm is forecast to gain in strength over the next several days and make landfall in the early morning hours Sunday.

Also in the vicinity, Cyclone Hagibis is expected to hit flood-ravaged Vietnam early Friday morning with tropical storm strength.

Tropical cyclones have a variety of names in different parts of the world. Americans are most familiar with the terms tropical storm and hurricane, but cyclones and typhoons are in the same family of storms. Scientists still debate their relationship to global warming.

Some research suggests the frequency or intensity of cyclones will increase -- or already has increased -- with warmer ocean temperatures, but long term data is hard to come by, given the advances in observational techniques developed in recent decades. That makes comparing the historical record to today difficult, and pins the connection between global warming and tropical storms less on observational data than on computer models.

While the Northern Hemisphere tropical storm season, including the Atlantic, is quieting now, the Southern Hemisphere tropical storm season is just gearing up. Several storms have been tracked in recent days near Australia, including one that killed dozens in Papua New Guinea.

Cyclone Mitag

Joint Typhoon Warning Center

There appears to be plenty of warm water the storm will traverse, indicating it may well grow in intensity -- perhaps even beyond the expectations of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The center failed to predict the intensity of Cyclone Sidr, which devastated Bangladesh last week.

Ocean Heat