Kristine likely to be removed from tropical cyclone names - PAGASA

Kristine will probably no longer be used as a name for a tropical cyclone within the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) due to the immense damage it inflicted on people and property, weather bureau PAGASA said.

''DOST-PAGASA will formally announce the official decommissioning of domestic cyclone names from the 2024 season in January 2025 since we have to wait for the final and official disaster-related statistics from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). However, the initial tally from the NDRRMC indicates that Kristine will likely be decommissioned,'' PAGASA senior weather specialist Robb Gile told GMA News Online.

Kristine (international name: Trami), which was inside PAR from October 21 to 25, caused at least 97 fatalities and P4.34 billion in damage to infrastructure and agriculture, data released on October 28 by the NDRRMC showed.

Subsequent reports included the impact of Super Typhoon Leon (international name: Kong-Rey).

A domestic tropical cyclone name is decommissioned by DOST-PAGASA if, according to government reports, it kills at least 300 people or causes damage to houses, agriculture, and infrastructure amounting to at least P1 billion.

Several names, including Yolanda, Goring, Pablo, Sendong, and Egay, had been retired by DOST-PAGASA. Replacement names were then produced, and they will be used every four years.

No U-turn

PAGASA also explained why Kristine did not loop back to the country after leaving PAR as a severe tropical storm.

The weather bureau had earlier said Kristine could move back to PAR depending on the behavior of Leon and ''other synoptic weather systems'' around Kristine.

''Kristine eventually made landfall in Vietnam, resulting in significant weakening. The tropical cyclone eventually became a low pressure area over the coastal waters of central Vietnam on the evening of October 28, 2024 (PH time),'' Gile said.

''With Kristine maintaining a significant distance from Leon throughout its lifetime and with both the southwesterly wind flow and the high pressure ridge near the equator (south of Vietnam) developing but weaker than expected, Kristine did not loop back in a manner that was originally forecasted,'' he added.

The development avoided an interaction of two tropical cyclones known as the Fujiwhara effect.

According to the US National Weather Service, when two tropical cyclones "spinning in the same direction pass close enough to each other, they begin an intense dance around their common center."

The Hong Kong Observatory said that the two storms should be roughly 1,350 kilometers apart for this to occur. —with a report from Jiselle Anne Casucian/VBL, GMA Integrated News