Typhoon Nalgae (2011)

Typhoon Nalgae (Quiel)

Typhoon (JMA scale)
Category 4 (Saffir–Simpson scale)
Typhoon Nalgae at peak intensity nearing landfall over the Philippines
Formed	September 26, 2011
Dissipated	October 5, 2011
Highest winds	10-minute sustained: 175 km/h (110 mph) 1-minute sustained: 240 km/h (150 mph)
Lowest pressure	935 hPa (mbar); 27.61 inHg
Fatalities	18
Damage	$250 million (2011 USD)
Areas affected	Philippines, China, Vietnam
Part of the 2011 Pacific typhoon season

Typhoon Nalgae, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Quiel, was a powerful tropical cyclone that struck the Philippines, and it affected Hainan, China as a weak tropical storm. Nalgae was the eighth typhoon and the fourth super typhoon in 2011. Forming as the 32nd tropical depression of the season, the system formed on September 26 over the Philippine Sea. On September 27, it was named Nalgae as it explosively intensified into a typhoon on the next day. Nalgae reached its peak intensity as a Category 4 typhoon on September 30 while it made landfall over Luzon. Nalgae weakened into a tropical storm as it entered the South China Sea on October 1. Nalgae made landfall over the island of Guandong in China on October 4 as it weakened to a tropical depression. Nalgae dissipated on October 5 east of Vietnam.

On September 26, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) started to monitor a weak tropical depression that had developed about 1,260 km (785 mi) to the northwest of Manila in the Philippines. During that day, while the depression moved towards the northwest its low level circulation centre rapidly consolidated in an area of favourable conditions for further development of the system. This prompted the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) to issue a tropical cyclone formation alert on the system early the next day. However less than 3 hours later, the JTWC decided to issue advisories on the system designating it as Tropical Depression 22W, before the JMA reported that the depression had become a tropical storm and named it Nalgae.

The storm slowly drifted to the west and kept on intensifying gradually. On September 29, microwave imagery showed Nalgae developed an eyelike feature and well defined convective banding in all the quadrants. The system had a tiny radius of winds, though it was still strengthening significantly and was very well defined. On the evening of September 28, the JMA reported that Nalgae continued to intensify, as they upgraded it to a severe tropical storm with winds of over 55 knots (102 km/h; 63 mph). On that night, the PAGASA initiated advisories on Nalgae, giving it the local name Quiel, as it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).