A quick update on Typhoon Bopha (Pablo) as it churns its way towards the Philippines.  The most recent forecasts suggest that it will make landfall in the southern part of the Philippines on Tuesday as a category 3 storm, and then will rapidly weaken as it loses its energy source:

This remains a very grave danger to Mindanao and associated areas.  As I have noted before, even though meteorologists focus on wind speeds, most of the harm caused by tropical cyclones comes from  water – i.e. storm surge, floods and rainfall triggered landslides.  Efforts are being made to prepare for the storm, but this has the potential to be very serious.