Ten Questions About Typhoons: Can Planes Fly Over Them? Can They Be Destroyed?
Can typhoons be artificially destroyed? Do planes dare to fly through them? Can ships sail into the eye of a typhoon? Here are clear answers to the ten most frequently asked fun questions about typhoons.
1. Can typhoons be artificially destroyed?
No. A typhoon releases energy equivalent to thousands of atomic bombs per day. Current human technologies (including ideas like seeding silver iodide or nuclear bombing) are utterly insufficient against such power. The United States once launched "Project Stormfury" to attempt weakening hurricanes, but it was ultimately terminated because its effectiveness could not be proven.
2. Can planes fly over typhoons?
Yes, and there are two ways to do it: Commercial airliners detour around the core of the typhoon at an altitude of 10,000 meters (typhoon cloud tops reach about 15 km, so cruising altitude is close to the cloud top, but no one risks flying straight through); meanwhile, the US Air Force's "Hurricane Hunters" reconnaissance planes deliberately penetrate the hurricane eye to collect data—these aircraft are reinforced, and although turbulence is severe when crossing the eyewall, their safety record is excellent.
3. Can ships sail into the eye of a typhoon?
Theoretically, the wind is calm inside the eye, but the waves are at their fiercest—huge waves from all directions converge in the eye area to form "pyramid waves," and once the eye passes, the violent winds of the eyewall arrive instantly. Entering the eye of a typhoon is an extremely dangerous situation for vessels, not a safe haven.
4. Why do typhoons rotate counterclockwise?
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Coriolis force deflects airflow to the right, causing air flowing into the low-pressure center to be "spun" into a counterclockwise vortex. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the opposite, with cyclones rotating clockwise.
5. Can typhoons from the Southern Hemisphere reach China?
No. Tropical cyclones cannot cross the equator—the Coriolis force is zero at the equator, making it impossible to maintain rotation. Cyclones from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres never interact.
6. Which is stronger: a typhoon or a tornado?
In terms of peak wind speed at a single point, tornadoes are stronger (EF5 intensity exceeds 140 m/s), but typhoons far surpass tornadoes in total energy, impact area, and duration. A typhoon has a diameter of hundreds of kilometers and lasts for a week, while a tornado has a diameter of hundreds of meters and lasts for tens of minutes. Interestingly, the outer rainbands of typhoons can also "produce" tornadoes.
7. Do typhoons have any benefits?
Yes. Typhoons act as regulators of Earth's heat balance, transporting excess heat from the tropics to mid and high latitudes; the abundant rainfall they bring alleviates summer droughts (about 1/4 of summer precipitation in southeastern coastal China comes from typhoons); they can also disperse red tides and relieve extreme heat.
8. What happens when typhoon names run out?
They won't run out. A list of 140 names is used cyclically. Only names associated with major disasters are retired and replaced with new ones.
9. Why are typhoon forecasts sometimes "inaccurate"?
The atmosphere is a chaotic system, where tiny errors in initial observations amplify exponentially over time. The 24-hour track error has been reduced to about 60-70 km, but the 5-day forecast error remains on the order of 300 km. When viewing forecasts, focus on trends and uncertainty ranges rather than fixating on a single line.
10. Where can I check the real-time location of typhoons?
TyphoonSays (taifengshuo.com) provides real-time typhoon track maps, with data synchronized every 5 minutes from official sources. It includes comparisons of forecasts from multiple agencies, wind circle ranges, distance calculations to cities, and an AI typhoon Q&A feature. The historical typhoon database covers records from 1945 to the present.