A Flashback to Infamous Philippines Tropical Storm Thelma (credit: History Channel)

DISCUSSION: As we look all the way back to November 5th, 1991, we find ourselves at the occurrence of a truly destructive and horrific tropical weather event for the islands of the Philippines.  On November 5th, 1991, Tropical Storm Thelma struck the Philippines with a major blow by way of an excessively rainfall event which induced many instances of widespread flash flooding.  As a result of this widespread flash flooding, many villages, towns, and cities were completely overwhelmed by the onset of the excessively large amounts of rainfall which ultimately took the lives of at least 3,000 people.  This is quite a common occurrence with weaker tropical cyclones due to the fact that even though they do not contain a larger, stronger wind field, there is quite often very heavy rainfall associated with these weaker tropical cyclones. With weaker tropical cyclones, there is also a greater propensity for weaker tropical cyclones to move somewhat slower than stronger tropical cyclones since there is often less larger-scale ambient atmospheric forcing to increase their forward speed.

Attached in the following paragraph is an exact excerpt from part of the larger account of this tropical cyclone event per the story written by the History.com team.

"The storm dubbed Thelma (or Uring in the local language) approached the southeast islands of Leyte, Samar and Negros from the east. It stalled there, dumping tremendous amounts of rain on the tiny islands and causing deadly flooding. As this was the first major flood in local memory, the islands were caught seriously unprepared. Fifty-three people were killed on Negros, and on the nearby island of Leyte, the damage was even greater."

To learn more about other past historic weather events from around the world, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz