The Climate and its Devastation

 

Heavy fog forms in the capital city of Haikou, Hainan

Hainan has both a tropical/subtropical climate with different sub variations inside the island. Tropical climates have abundant amounts of rainfall due to active vertical uplifts forcing warm air over cold fronts, creating stormy cumulonimbus clouds. In the capital, Haikou, there is a humid subtropical climate where it is characterized as both hot and humid during the summers, and cool or mild during the winters. In other parts of the island, they have a tropical monsoon climate where wet and dry seasons are clearly different. The dry seasons (Winter & Spring) are relatively dry with rare rainfall, while the wet seasons (Summer & Autumn) receive extreme amounts of rain. The temperatures in Hainan don't vary much, averaging between 73°F to 79°F and receiving around 2,000mm of rain annually. From January to February, there is an annual fog caused by the colder winter air of China making contact with the warmer sea surrounding Hainan. The cold-air advancement causes evaporating moisture from the sea to condense into a thick fog called steam fog.


Super Typhoon Haiyan in false color to show the intensity (Category 5) Nov. 2013

Even though Typhoon Haiyan (2013) didn't strike Hainan directly, Hainan was on the right
side of the typhoon which has the strongest winds that caused damage killing six people.

 

The path of Typhoon Kalmaegi shows that Hainan was hit, lying
on the left weaker side of the typhoon.

On September 16 2014, Hainan was slammed by typhoon Kalmaegi killing at least 8 people and evacuating over 90,000 people in Hainan's eastern coast alone. Typhoon Kalmaegi began Sept. 11th, forming as a tropical depression which is the first stage of a typhoon where there is a lowered pressure in the water and thunderstorms begin to group together. A day later, the winds picked up reaching over 39 mph and forming a tropical storm where the storm gains its rotation and picks up wind speed. After another day, the tropical storm finally transforms into a typhoon, gaining energy and becoming a category one typhoon before reaching Hainan three days later. After a typhoon, the intense rainfall and storm surges lead to intense flooding in Hainan.








Hainan becomes flooded after Typhoon Kalmaegi

Sources:
http://www.ecoca.ro/meteo/tutorial/climate/older/tropical_climate.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan#Climate
http://www.chinahighlights.com/hainan/weather.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_monsoon_climate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humid_subtropical_climate

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/typhoon-hits-china-s/1364694.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Kalmaegi_(2014)
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201415.html?
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/jkl/?n=fog_types