S-E Asia typhoons to intensify faster, shift northwards

Cyclones to slow down on land as world warms, threatening coastal cities: Study

- Shabana Begum

Typhoon Gaemi, which lashed the Philippines, Taiwan and southern China in late July, signalled what is to come as a warming climate speeds up the formation of catastrophic storms and shifts their pathways towards the north.

The third named storm and second typhoon of the annual typhoon season, Gaemi killed dozens as it wreaked untold damage in its path.

As the world warms, typhoons in South-east Asia are expected to intensify more quickly, move northwards towards places such as China and the Korean peninsula, and slow down on land - causing more damage in highly populated coastal areas and beyond.

Typhoon modelling studies done by researchers at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and two United States institutes also found that coastal cities such as Bangkok, Yangon and Hai Phong in Vietnam are likely to bear the brunt of these longer-lasting and more powerful cyclones.

Professor Benjamin Horton, director of NTU's Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) and a co-author of the study, said: "As our waters gain more temperature, tropical cyclones are going to start to occur in regions that previously didn't have them much.