Tropical cyclones passing over or near the northern Philippines caused many severe floods, landslides and numerous lost lives during the 2009 western north Pacific typhoon season.

contributed by named tropical cyclones that affected the northern Philippines during 2009. The tracks of tropical cyclones are shown in black. Most of the northern Philippines had over 400 mm (15 inches) of rain added by these tropical cyclones.

The heaviest rainfall contributed by tropical cyclones was over 1400 mm (55 inches) in the area traversed by deadly Typhoon Parma from Oct. 14-27. This image shows Parma’s track in white, criss-crossing the northern Philippines.

Cyclone Cleo Has Reached Its Maximum Wind Speed

At 4 a.m. today, Cyclone Cleo was located about 275 miles south of Diego Garcia, near 11.9 South latitude and 73.3 East longitude. It was moving west-southwest near 8 mph. Tropical storm-force winds extend out to 115 miles from its center, so the storm is larger than 230 miles in diameter. Hurricane-force winds of more than 74 mph extend as far as 45 miles from the center.

satellite captured this visible image of Cyclone Cleo on Dec. 9 at 0853 UTC, in a classic hurricane-style pinwheel shape. However, the eye is not clearly visible.

satellite captured high, cold (purple) thunderstorm cloud tops of Cleo (bottom center) in this infrared image December 9. Those cloud tops are as cold as -63F. Southern India and the island of Sri Lanka are pictured here to the northeast of Cleo.