Tropical Storm Higos, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Pablo, was a tropical storm during the

2008 Pacific typhoon season The 2008 Pacific typhoon season was a below average season which featured 22 named storms, eleven typhoons, and two super typhoons. The season had no official bounds; it ran year-round in 2008, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northw ...

. The name "Higos" is the

Chamorro Chamorro may refer to: * Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific * Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas * Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mar ...

word for

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

Meteorological history

At 18:00 UTC on September 28, the

Japan Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

(JMA) assessed the formation of a

tropical depression A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

near

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

. At 06:00 UTC the next day, the

Joint Typhoon Warning Center The Joint typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The JTWC is responsible for the issuing of tropical cyclone warnings in the North-West Pacific Ocean, South P ...

(JTWC) issued a

Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA) is a bulletin released by the U.S. Navy-operated Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii or the Fleet Weather Center in Norfolk, Virginia, warning of the possibility of a tropical cyclone forming ...

on the westwardly tracking disturbance, designating it as ''Tropical Depression 21W''. Upon development, the storm showed signs of improving organization. Consolidation continued as the storm approached the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

at the eve of October, though intensification was tempered by increasing

wind shear Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizontal ...

and interaction with the archipelago. On September 29, the storm entered the area of responsibility of the

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration Pagasa may refer to: * ''Pagasa'' (genus), an insect genus in the family Nabidae * PAGASA, an acronym for the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration *"May Pagasa", a pen-name of José Rizal José Prot ...

(PAGASA), who locally named the system ''Pablo''. The tropical cyclone grazed eastern

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

and tracked towards southern

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

—with the JMA noting little change in strength—on September 30, guided by a nearby

subtropical ridge The horse latitudes are the latitudes about 30 degrees north and south of the Equator. They are characterized by sunny skies, calm winds, and very little precipitation. They are also known as Subtropics, subtropical ridges, or highs. It is a h ...

. As the storm moved across the Philippines, its center of circulation became elongated and difficult to locate, though deep convective activity initiated near the center as the storm began to accelerate into the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

on October 1. The JMA upgraded the cyclone to a minimal tropical storm by October 2 with sustained winds of 40 mph (65 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 996 mbar (hPa; 29.47 inHg); Higos would not strengthen further throughout its evolution in the South China Sea. With the upgrade, the system was named ''Higos''. In contrast, the JTWC noted that the system had become disorganized in the same timeframe with a lack of consolidation noted in microwave satellite imagery. Higos remained ill-defined the next day and was consequently downgraded to a tropical depression by the JMA. On October 4, the weakening system crossed eastern

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

and slowed considerably, with land interaction and wind shear creating hostile environmental conditions for Higos. Higos drifted northeastward into mainland China as a tropical depression and eventually dissipated early on October 6.

Preparations

Ahead of time, Ferry services on

Qiongzhou Strait The Qiongzhou Strait, also called the is the Chinese strait that separates Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula from the island province of Hainan. It connects the Gulf of Tonkin on its west to the South China Sea on its east. The strait is on averag ...

in south China were suspended. Due to heavily relying on the ferry', all passenger trains were also temporarily suspended. Authorities in two airports in Hainan Province: Meilan International Airport in Haikou, the provincial capital, and Fenghuang (Phoenix) International Airport in Sanya, a seaside resort on the southern tip of the island, managed to keep arrivals and departures at their respective airports going.

Warnings

Philippines

China

China issued an orange alert on for Higos and the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters activated a third degree emergency response on Friday to prevent flooding, while in Hong Kong, the Standby Signal No. 1 was issued at 7.30 p.m. on October 2 when Higos was about 700 km south of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. All tropical cyclone warning signals were cancelled at 10.30 p.m. on October 4 as Higos made landfall over western

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

and weakened.

Impact

In Hong Kong, a sheet of glass fell off from a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui when the Strong Monsoon Signal was in force. Two vehicles were damaged and a person was slightly injured during the incident. In addition, a scaffolding was reported loose in Kowloon Bay. , however its heavy rainfall may have stopped a potential drought from starting. According to a report from

Yahoo News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

, Higos killed four paramilitary operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency's Maritime Branch who were on a mission to plant surveillance equipment on a small island in the

Luzon Strait The Luzon Strait (Tagalog: ''Kipot ng Luzon'', ) is the strait between Taiwan and Luzon island of the Philippines. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean. This body of water is an im ...

References

External links

JMA General Information
of Tropical Storm Higos (0817) from Digital Typhoon
JMA Best Track Data
of Tropical Storm Higos (0817)
JTWC Best Track Data
of Tropical Storm 21W (Higos)
21W.HIGOS
from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory {{DEFAULTSORT:Higos (2008) 2008 Pacific typhoon season Western Pacific tropical storms 2008 disasters in the Philippines Typhoons in the Philippines Typhoons in Hong Kong Higos