As cyclones go, Kilo is geriatric.
The tropical storm started out east of Hawaii more than three weeks ago, became a hurricane, then a typhoon and is forecast to survive to reach the Kuril Islands between Russia and Japan on Friday. The average lifespan is 5.9 days for an eastern Pacific hurricane and 7.4 for a western Pacific typhoon.
“You don’t usually see them persisting for three weeks, crossing the dateline from the eastern Pacific to the central Pacific and now the western Pacific,” said Paul Walker, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.
While it won’t set a record for longevity, Kilo does illustrate the impact a strong El Nino can have on weather worldwide.
The warmer Pacific Ocean surface caused by this year’s El Nino has provided the fuel to help keep Kilo alive during its 22-day meander across the ocean basin, said Jeff Masters, co- founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Hurricanes, which become typhoons when they cross the International Dateline, tend to form farther to the east in El Nino years, giving them a larger expanse of ocean to wander in, Masters said.
Atlantic’s Different
That’s the opposite of what happens in the Atlantic. In that basin, the weather-changing phenomenon tends to cut down on both the number of storms that form and on their longevity.
Hurricane John, which holds the global survival record at 31 days, formed in the Pacific in the El Nino year of 1994, according to the Hurricane Research Division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Most of the other storms on the record lists for the eastern and western Pacific also formed during El Ninos.
John started as hurricane, became a typhoon and then reverted to hurricane status as it crossed and re-crossed the dateline.
Walker said Kilo will veer away from a direct hit on Japan’s home islands and fall apart in the colder water off the Russian coast.
Japan is currently dealing with flooding from Tropical Storm Etau, which hit earlier this week, he said. Emergency weather warnings were posted in Ibaraki and Tochigi, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency website, while heavy rain, thunderstorm and flood alerts were issued for much of the northern part of the country.
Etau’s destructions proves even a weak tropical system can cause a lot of problems, as Tropical Storm Erika did in the Atlantic earlier this month, when it flooded Dominica and killed at least 20 people.
(An earlier version of this story was corrected in last paragraph to show that Dominica was the island where Erika killed 20 people.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6bloomberg.net Charlotte Porter, Melinda Grenier