UPDATE: This is non-weather-related, but there has been a major earthquake in Samoa that may have spawned a tsunami.
UPDATE: You can see some incredible photos from the New York Times and the Washington Post also has video.
The New York Times says that 240 people have now been killed by the flooding in Philippines caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana. Below is a map showing the rainfall from NASA TRMM. Some are calling it the "Katrina of Filipinos". Local meteorologists are also blaming the storm's rain on climate change.
NASA says:
The highest rainfall totals occur in an east-west band over central Luzon, including Manila, south of storm's track (indicated by the solid black line). Amounts in this region are on the order of 375 mm (~15 inches, shown in dark yellow) to over 475 mm (~19 inches, shown in orange). The highest recorded amount near Manila was 585.5 mm (almost 24 inches).
The climate change article states:
Nilo Prisco, head of the weather bureau, said Ondoy dumped 410.6mm of rain in Manila in a span of nine hours. The amount exceeded the average monthly rainfall of 391mm and the 1967 record of 331mm, which was tallied in a 24-hour period.
So how do these records (410.6 mm in 9 hours & 585.5 mm storm total) compare to world record rainfall? Well, they are impressive but still fall short of the records (42.79" in 9 hours &72.62" in 24 hours on Reunion Island).
Here's our latest video on the subject:
A military truck loaded with evacuees braves the flooded street after the water subsides allowing big trucks to enter the area Monday, Sept. 28, 2009 in suburban Cainta, east of Manila, Philippines. Weary victims of a tropical storm that unleashed worst flooding in more than a decades begun cleaning up their damaged homes as rescue workers plucked more dead bodies from muddy floodwaters. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)
CIMSS Satellite Weather Blog
Extreme Weather Book Updates
MetSul (S. America) Blogs
Wx-Man (Brian Neudorff)
Regional Weather:
Storms-R-Us (Chris White / Virginia)
Valley Weather (Stephen Balena / Eastern Canada)
Jason Parkin (KCCI Des Moines)
WJZ13 Baltimore
Miles Muzio (Bakersfield Now)
The Weather Guy (Michael Detwiler)
Severe-Weather:
Warren Faidley's Storm Chaser Blog
Hurricane Chaser Jeff Gammon's Blog
Discovery Storm Chasers Blog
Australian Severe Weather Blog
Max Mayfield's Hurricane Blog
Weather-Related:
Mount Washington Blog (Brian's Blog
Grandfather Mountain Photo Blog
Seldom Seen State College Photo Blog
Atmospheric Optics
Atmospheric Phenomena
Non-Weather:
Wired
Engadget
Thematic Mapping
Get a handy weather station and convenient public alert radio, all for one great price.
The Public Alert Docking Weather Station - available at AccuWeather's AccuMall.
© 2009 AccuWeather, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
AccuWeather.com is a registered trademark of AccuWeather, Inc.
Terms of usage under which this service is provided.
Privacy Statement
192.168.77.148 | STJ
Subscribers sign-in to AccuWeather Premium | AccuWeather Professional | AccuWeather RadarPlus
Not a Member? Read all about Premium, Professional, RadarPlus, and LightningPlus
RSS Feeds Available 
Podcasts Available 
Blogs Available
This page may contain Mapping and GPS Navigation Systems provided by GeoMicro, Inc.
it looks like you changed the video clip. but is this new clip really from the philippines? i doubt it.
Posted by Gino C. MATIBAG | October 1, 2009 6:53 AM
Have tropical systems not been causing massive flooding since the beginning of time? Global warming caused this? What idiots! Isn't this winter forecast to be the coolest in a decade in the Northeast? It's amazing - I saw the two on air people on TWC commenting about the lack of hurricanes this year being due to global warming and back in 2005 when we had so many hurricanes, it was because of global warming. So basically any change in the weather is caused by global warming and if cut down on our emissions the weather will always be perfect. By the way, your blogs are always great, very informative!
Posted by D Gregg | September 29, 2009 11:08 PM
Why was there no image of the great floods in your video in the Philippines? Is it an authentic clip? Thanks.
FROM JESSE: It's very challenging for us, as a Commercial company, to get the rights to distribute video from overseas, but we're working on it. I'll add some links to video and photos above.
Posted by Gino C. MATIBAG | September 29, 2009 12:38 PM