Monday

Guam is often referred to as "Where America's Day Begins," since we're 15 hours ahead of Central time. America's day, and in fact America's week has already begun and it is hard to believe that our first weekend here has come and gone. I'll have to add photos to this entry later, as I don't seem to be able to find an internet signal powerful enough to let me upload photos.

We went out with a real estate agent on Saturday and looked at houses. We haven't settled on anything yet, but it was really fun to get out and see some places. All of the houses we saw were tiled throughout, which I guess is a good thing since typhoons can cause water to leak in all kinds of inopportune places. Every place we saw also had typhoon shutters on all of the windows. I had never seen anything like them, but they are pretty neat. They are accordion style shutters, made of heavy-duty plastic or aluminum, and are permanently affixed to the house. When closed, they look like this:


Since I have none of my own photos to share, I will instead give you the rundown on typhoons. A typhoon is defined as a tropical cyclone. It is the same thing as a hurricane - the only difference is that it forms over the Northwestern Pacific, instead of the Northeast Pacific Basin, or the Atlantic. Typhoons do tend to be a bit larger and more intense than hurricanes, simply due to their location, but the difference is merely the terminology used.

Less severe than a typhoon is a Tropical Depression (low pressure system), which is defined as a system of clouds and thunderstorms with winds less than 39 mph.

Between a Tropical Depression and a Typhoon is a Tropical Storm, in which the system of clouds and thunderstorms begins to take the characteristic cyclonic shape and the winds increase to somewhere between 39 and 73 mph.

By the time a storm becomes a Typhoon, it has developed an eye and has sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour. The maximum sustained winds in a typhoon are estimated to be about 195 mph. However, when super typhoon Paka (pictured below) hit Guam in 1997, Andersen AFB reportedly recorded one of the world's strongest gusts - about 236 mph - but its equipment was destroyed. The diameter of a typhoon can measure over 100 miles.


The most important thing for my fellow worry-warts back in the contiguous United States to remember is that Guam is more than prepared for typhoons. Super Typhoon Paka, which may have brought with it the strongest non-tornadic winds ever recorded on earth's surface, did not cause a single fatality. Everyone knew it was coming, and they either went to a typhoon shelter or went inside their house, closed their shutters, put towels under their doors, and cuddled up until the storm passed.

They say that an average of one typhoon per year is felt here on Guam, but that does not necessarily mean that there is one every year, of course. Only 19 have actually passed directly over Guam in the past 57 years. The last really major one was in 2002, so many say that we are due for a serious storm very soon.

I will post some warmer, prettier photos when I get someplace with a better signal!