Typhoon Mujigae


Typhoon Mujigae, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Kabayan, was the strongest storm to strike the province of Guangdong in the month of October. The storm affected the Philippines, southern China and northern Vietnam during early October 2015 as a strong typhoon. The typhoon originated from a weak tropical disturbance near Palau on September 28. The system subsequently developed into the twenty-second named storm of the annual typhoon season on October 1.

Meteorological history

Early on September 30, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued a tropical cyclone formation alert for an area of convection east of the Philippines. The system had a consolidating center and rainbands, and moved to the west-northwest. At 18:00 UTC on September 30, the Japan Meteorological Agency classified the system as a tropical depression about 160 km east of the Philippine island of Samar. Early the next day, the JTWC initiated advisories on the system as Tropical Depression 22W,
 and the PAGASA designated it with the local name Tropical Depression Kabayan. All three agencies later classified Kabayan as a tropical storm, with the JMA naming it Mujigae.
By October 2, Mujigae made landfall over Aurora province and the JTWC later downgraded the system to a tropical depression. The JTWC upgraded it back to a tropical storm whilst the JMA upgraded its intensity to severe tropical storm strength. The next day, due to radial outflow, Mujigae began a phase of rapid deepening, with convection wrapping around a developing eye, as it moved towards western Guangdong, China, prompting the JMA and the JTWC to classify Mujigae as a typhoon.

Preparations and impact

Philippines

The city of Iba, on the western side of Luzon Island in the northern Philippines, was deluged with at least of rain in just 24 hours. Manila was spared the worst of it but still got approximately during that same time. A coast guard spokesman said search-and-rescue ships were scouring the sea west of Pangasinan, Ilocos and Zambales after two cargo ships bound for Japan had picked up nine fishermen of the Philippines, of which are all conscious from a capsized boat. According to the NDRRMC, damages amounted to ₱46.86 million. Two people were reported dead in Central Luzon from the Office of Civil Defense.

China

In Hainan and coastal Guangdong province, around 60,000 fishing boats were recalled to harbor to shelter from the storm. Three were reported dead in Foshan as a tornado struck from the rainbands of Mujigae and a fisherman died at sea off Zhanjiang. Mujigae killed 27 people and caused a total of ¥27.032 billion in economic losses.

Retirement

Due to the high damage toll caused by the storm in China, the name Mujigae was retired at the Fourth Joint Session of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee and WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones during 2016. On February 2017, they chose the name Surigae to replace Mujigae.