Typhoon Molave (2020) facts for kids

Typhoon Molave, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Quinta, was a powerful typhoon that impacted the Philippines and later Vietnam in October 2020, becoming the strongest to strike Vietnam since Typhoon Damrey in 2017.

The eighteenth named storm and eighth typhoon of the 2020 Pacific typhoon season, Molave started from a tropical depression that formed on October 23 east of Palau.

At 15:00 UTC the next day, the depression was upgraded into Tropical Storm Molave as it moved northwestward. Molave soon became a typhoon on October 25 as it turned west, shortly before making landfall on the San Miguel Island in Albay, with another in Malinao, San Andres, Torrijos and Pola.

After striking the Philippines, Molave entered the South China Sea and began to become more violent. Molave strengthened into a powerful Category 3 typhoon later that day, before weakening again as it approached Vietnam. The typhoon struck Vietnam on October 28, before rapidly weakening as it headed further into Indochina.

Images for kids

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  Three tropical cyclones occurred in the western Pacific Ocean simultaneously on October 28. From left to right: Molave, Goni, and a low-pressure area which later became Atsani (at bottom-right).

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  Molave shortly before landfall in the Philippines on October 25

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  Street flooding caused by Molave in Baliuag

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  Flooding of Pampanga River floodplain after Typhoon Quinta, 2020 (view from Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija bridge)