The wind and water from Super Typhoon Yagi hit Vietnam hard in early September. Before the country could recover from its strongest typhoon in decades, another storm inundated the region with additional heavy rain.
What's happening?
Super Typhoon Yagi packed a punch, with winds gusting over 90 mph. It was the strongest storm to hit the country in 30 years, and it dumped up to 17 inches of rain in just 24 hours. Yagi killed nearly 300 people and caused an estimated $1.6 billion in damage, according to Reuters.
Just days later, another storm struck the country, compounding the catastrophic flooding they were already enduring. The additional rainfall from the subsequent storm left valuable crops underwater, wiping out over 600,000 acres of farmland, including rice, fruit trees, and vegetables.
"My 500-square meter garden full of banana trees has been completely destroyed because of the typhoon and the floods," said farmer Tran Thi Ly, per Phys.org. "It has been decades since we experienced this, losing everything we invested in."
According to Phys.org, it was "Hanoi's worst flooding in two decades."
Why is a typhoon in Vietnam important?
According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Vietnam is one of the world's top five most vulnerable countries to climate change. USAID says extreme weather events like typhoons, floods, droughts, and landslides frequently put the country's 96 million people at risk.
As our world warms, conditions are becoming more conducive for typhoons to become more hazardous. Warmer sea surface temperatures and higher humidity can increase the intensity of tropical storms. Typhoon Yagi underwent rapid intensification at one point. According to a study published in Nature, our overheating planet could explain the global increase in storms undergoing rapid intensification.
Attribution scientists say our warming world made Typhoon Gaemi's winds and rainfall worse when it struck the Philippines in July. Typhoon Gaemi's winds reached 141 mph just before hitting Taiwan in late July, making it the strongest to hit the island in eight years, as Reuters reported. Scientists say our warming world likely means more intense storms. Torrential rains in Taiwan, with more than 50 inches falling in five townships, caused massive flooding.
What's being done about extreme weather events?
Reducing planet-warming pollution can help cool our planet and reduce the threat of some extreme weather events. Money talks, and how we spend and invest it can make an impact. Donating money to climate causes, investing in clean economy stocks, and upgrading to a clean 401(k) can make a difference.
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