A typhoon named 'Mawar'?

Never knew that one day I would come across 'Mawar', with me in a slightly bewildered state. I have always thought that the name 'Mawar' is a very gentle person, but today, 'Mawar' showed a different facet to her character and struck Tokyo! 'Mawar', used to be a popular name for Malay girls is also the Malay name for the flower, Rose.

Click here to view full image (4161 kb)

However this 'Mawar' is no ordinary person. Some clever chap over at Malaysian Meteorological Department [MMD] (of the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation) has found that this gentle name should be given to typhoon! Clever indeed! Among the other names that have been proposed to the Severe Weather Information Centre, World Meteorological Organization, are, Jelawat (name of a fish, a.k.a. Sultan fish), Melor (name of a flower, in english is Jasmine), Meranti (type of tree), Merbuk (name of bird, in english is spotted-necked dove) , Nangka (fruit, in english jack-fruit), Rumbia (palm tree that yeilds sago), Nuri (name of bird, in english is Blue crowned parroquet), Sepat and Tapah (names of Malaysian fresh-water fishes). Then again, I guess most meteorologist have the knack of naming typhoons with odd names, try browsing the list of names proposed by different nationalities here. Those chaps over at MMD also do weather forecast, among their other jobs.

As much as I wonder how Allah swt. goes around with the whole works, natural disaster such as this typhoon normally reminds those who are Muslims to remember the Greatness of Allah swt. My heart goes to the families and the country suffering the typhoon and thankful that Malaysia is generally considered to be beyond the typhoon's wrath!

Interesting links:-
Typhoon Mawar by Nasa
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
The Independent Weather Information Center
How typhoons are named
How and why storms are named

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The Star Online > Worldupdates

August 26, 2005

Typhoon Mawar lands near Tokyo, kills one

TOKYO (Reuters) - A powerful typhoon made landfall near Tokyo early on Friday, killing one person and injuring at least four others in strong winds and heavy rain.

Typhoon Mawar hit Chiba City, just east of Tokyo, around 4:30 a.m. Friday (1930 GMT Thursday), the Meteorological Agency said, flooding roads, knocking out power and forcing some residents to evacuate.

The storm was just off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture around 100 km east of the capital as of 8:35 a.m. (2330 GMT), the agency said.

Waves hit a lighthouse in Fuji as Typhoon Mawar approaches the Japanese mainland in Fuji, near Mount Fuji, August 25, 2005. (REUTERS/Kyodo)

It was heading northeast at 25 km an hour and was expected to head out into the Pacific Ocean and become an tropical depression early Saturday, the agency said. The storm had weakened, but winds at its centre were gusting up to 108 km an hour.

In Shizuoka prefecture west of Tokyo, a 55-year-old man died after falling off a roof and four others were injured, including a man whose skull was broken by a falling signboard, public broadcaster NHK said.

In Chiba prefecture, more than 3,500 households were without electricity and some 450 families were evacuated because of floods and the danger of landslides, NHK said.

The storm, named for a type of flower in the Malay language, had disrupted travel, forcing the cancellation of flights and express trains out of Tokyo. Train operations were still not back to normal in some parts of Chiba.

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