page_title: Typhoon Bopha
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: Typhoon Bopha / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: English: Track map of Typhoon Bopha of the 2012 Pacific typhoon season. The points show the location of the storm at 6-hour intervals. The colour represents the storm's maximum sustained wind speeds as classified in the Saffir–Simpson scale (see below), and the shape of the data points represent the nature of the storm, according to the legend below. Saffir–Simpson scale Tropical depression≤38 mph≤62 km/h Category 3111–129 mph178–208 km/h Tropical storm39–73 mph63–118 km/h Category 4130–156 mph209–251 km/h Category 174–95 mph119–153 km/h Category 5≥157 mph≥252 km/h Category 296–110 mph154–177 km/h Unknown Storm type Tropical cyclone Subtropical cyclone Extratropical cyclone / Remnant low / Tropical disturbance / Monsoon depression
context_page_description: Typhoon Bopha, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Pablo, was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to ever affect the southern Filipino island of Mindanao, making landfall as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 175 mph. The twenty-fourth tropical storm, along with being the fourth and final super typhoon of the 2012 Pacific Typhoon season, Bopha originated unusually close to the equator, becoming the second-most southerly Category 5 super typhoon, reaching a minimum latitude of 7.4°N on December 3, 2012, as only Typhoon Louise-Marge of 1964 came closer to the equator at this strength, at 7.3°N. After first landfalling in Palau, where it destroyed houses, disrupted communications and caused power outages, flooding and uprooted trees, Bopha made landfall late on December 3 on Mindanao, an island that had been devastated by the much weaker Tropical Storm Washi in December 2011. The storm caused widespread destruction on Mindanao, leaving thousands of people homeless and killing 1901 people.
  After hitting Davao Oriental and Davao de Oro provinces, Bopha shifted through the southern and central regions of Mindanao, cutting power to two provinces and triggering landslides.
context_section_description: On November 23, 2012, a large area of convection lingered 650 km (400 mi) south of Pohnpei, near the equator at a latitude of 0.6ºN. The system had a poorly defined, elongated atmospheric circulation and was located in an area of moderate wind shear and restricted outflow, due to a subtropical ridge to the north. As a result, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed a low chance for tropical cyclogenesis. The center slowly consolidated, with a well-defined mid-level center. Late on November 25, the JTWC issued a tropical cyclone formation alert after it organized further, noting that the system had developed an anticyclone which was providing outflow. Around the same time, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) classified the system as a tropical depression, about 410 km (255 mi) south-southwest of Pohnpei. At 2100 UTC on November 25, the JTWC too upgraded the system to Tropical Depression 26W.
  Upon developing, a depression had deep convection located in rainbands around the increasingly consolidating center; however, the center initially was difficult to locate. With minimal wind shear and overall favorable conditions, the system was expected to gradually intensify as it moved generally westward, steered by the ridge to the north. On November 26, the movement became nearly stationary as the center organized further. Later that day, the JMA upgraded the depression to Tropical Storm Bopha (1224), and early on November 27 the JTWC followed suit after a strong burst of thunderstorms over the center. Its westward motion increased on November 28, later becoming west-southwestward. The convection gradually became better organized and wrapped into the center, indicative of a strengthening storm. However, early on November 29 the appearance degraded, with the thunderstorms limited to the southern periphery due to reduced outflow to the south. The circulation became exposed, and the JTWC noted that Bopha was unable to intensify significantly due to its low latitude and correspondingly low Coriolis effect. Late on November 29, convection increased, aided by warm waters and low wind shear. At 0000 UTC on November 30, the JMA upgraded Bopha to a severe tropical storm. A few hours later, the JTWC upgraded the storm to a typhoon, and the JMA followed suit at 1800 UTC that day. At that time, Bopha was located about 980 km (610 mi) east-southeast of Palau.
  As the system continued to intensify, organized bands of thunderstorms began to develop rapidly around the system, mostly on the western half of the storm.  They later merged with Bopha, which led to the system's increase in size. Several hot towers also began to rise up near the low level circulation center, with one of the hot towers reaching 17 km (11 mi) into the atmosphere. At around the same time, on November 30, a ragged, eye-like feature appeared in microwave imagery, which later transitioned into a pinhole eye by December 1. The stadium effect was also observed in the thick convection surrounding the eyewall, involving thin strips of clouds from the eyewall curve outward from the surface with height. At around the same time the system's eye structure improved, it began to explosively intensify, becoming a Category 4 storm in 18 hours, while being less than five degrees from the equator.
  On December 1, the system, as a Category 4 typhoon, maintained a well defined, small eye, which later dissipated, but reformed by December 2. As Bopha strengthened further into a super typhoon on December 2, the well-defined eye underwent a small eyewall replacement cycle by late December 2, and by 1000 UTC on December 2, the system developed double eye walls, which were only seen in microwave imagery. AT 1230 UTC on December 2, Bopha neared Palau, with a closest distance of 50 km (31 mi). At that time, the system's outflow improved, and convection near the eye thickened. Early on December 3, due to the eye wall replacement cycle, the system weakened slightly into a Category 3 typhoon; however, a few hours later, as the eyewall replacement cycle ended, Bopha reintensified into a Categor
caption: Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
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