At a Glance

Typhoon Vongfong made landfall May 14 in the central Philippines.This Category 3 storm brought flooding, landslides and destructive winds.Vongfong was the first named storm of 2020 in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Typhoon Vongfong, the first typhoon of 2020, raked the central Philippines with flooding rainfall, landslides and damaging winds.

Vongfong, which was locally known as "Ambo" in the Philippines, made landfall just after midday local time on May 14 near the town of San Policarpo in the province of Eastern Samar, about 350 miles southeast of the nation's capital, Manila.

Less than 2 hours after landfall, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimated Vongfong's maximum sustained winds were 115 mph, equivalent on the U.S. Saffir Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Vongfong lost intensity as its center moved across the Eastern Visayas region after landfall. By the following afternoon, Vongfong was rated by JTWC as a tropical storm.

The Philippine weather service, PAGASA, issued a tropical cyclone wind signal number 3, the third highest signal on a scale of 1 to 5, for the parts of the central Philippines including the . In these areas, widespread power outages and downed trees were expected, with considerable wind damage to structures, especially those of poorer construction, possible.

Given Vongfong's small size, the Philippine capital, Manila, was only expected to have peripheral impacts, including bands of locally heavy rain and gusty winds, possibly tropical storm-force.

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Vongfong is the first named storm of 2020 in the Western Pacific Ocean, and the first major hurricane strength storm in the northern hemisphere this year.

The Western Pacific Basin is Earth's most active basin for tropical cyclones due to a vast expanse of warm water, a lack of dry air that invades the Atlantic Basin.

Since these Western Pacific systems can form any time of year, there really is no season, per se.

From 1981 through 2010, an average of 26 Western Pacific named storms formed each year, 17 of which became typhoons, more than double the average of Atlantic Basin named storms (12) and hurricanes (6).

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