Typhoon Haiyan (or Yolanda as it is known locally) slammed into the Philippines on November 7^th. According to the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, it was “thought to be the strongest storm to ever make landfall anywhere in the world in modern records.” The typhoon wreaked havoc on a disastrous scale, affecting over four million people and killing as many as 10,000 to date.  Some have asked whether or not it is necessary to create a new category of storm to capture the magnitude of the typhoon, much as Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology recently created the category of “deep purple” to account for unprecedented highs in temperature. (more…)