The Hurricane Herald
This is the monthly newsletter of WikiProject Tropical Cyclones. The Hurricane Herald aims to give a summary, both of the activities of the WikiProject and global tropical cyclone activity. If you wish to change how you receive this newsletter, or no longer wish to receive it, please add your username to the appropriate section on the mailing list. This newsletter covers all of June 2008.
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Storm of the month
Typhoon Fengshen was the deadliest Pacific typhoon since Typhoon Durian in November of 2006. The sixth named storm of the 2008 Pacific typhoon season, Fengshen developed on June 18 to the east of the Philippines, and after attaining typhoon status it stuck the island of Samar. It intensified while passing through the archipelago, reaching winds of over 175 km/h (110 mph) before passing near Metro Manila. Fengshen later weakened in the South China Sea, and it dissipated on June 26 after moving ashore in China.
The typhoon killed over 1,300 people, including 800 when the MV Princess of the Stars capsized during the storm. Damage totaled $247 million (USD), with over 300,000 houses damaged or destroyed. The damage total included $70 million (USD) in crop damage.
Other tropical cyclone activity
- 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season — Two tropical depressions form during the month, including one in each sub-basin. The second depression hit Bangladesh, which added to flooding and damage across the area.
- Northwestern Pacific Ocean – In addition to Fengshen, Typhoon Nakri became extratropical early in the month.
- Eastern Pacific Ocean – Hurricane Boris and Tropical Storm Cristina form and co-exist well to the southwest of Mexico in the last week of the month through early July.
- 2008 Atlantic hurricane season– Tropical Storm Arthur dissipates over the Yucatán Peninsula early in the month.
New and improved articles
- There was one new piece of Featured content : List of Maryland and Washington, D.C. hurricanes (1980–present)
- New Good articles include: Hurricane Kyle (2002), Cyclone Bola, Hurricane Guillermo (1997)
- New storm articles include: Hurricane Jimena (2003), Hurricane Huko (2002)
- New non-storm articles include: 1968 Atlantic hurricane season, 1999 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Effects of Hurricane Charley in South Carolina, List of unnamed tropical cyclones
Addition of C-class
During the month, C-class was added to the assessment scheme. The project has begun the process of integrating C-class, though as of this publication only 8 articles in the project are at that level. A preliminary solution would be to very strictly define B-class with six criteria, with one proposal to automatically re-assess all B-class articles as C-class until they are confirmed to have passed the criteria. Discussion and participation are welcome on the issue.
As a result of the addition of C-class, the ω (WikiWork) rating for C-class is now 3.5, to keep in line with the previous system we used.
During the month, the project published a page on its style for articles. The purpose for the page, as quoted from the top of the page, is to document a few existing unwritten guidelines for Wikipedia:WikiProject Tropical cyclones.
Main Page content
- 2006 Atlantic hurricane season appeared as Today's Featured Article on June 10
- Typhoon Fengshen (2008) appeared early in the month in the In the news column
- Entries from articles: 1851 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Patsy (1959), Effects of Hurricane Charley in South Carolina, 1968 Pacific hurricane season, Hurricane Huko (2002), Hurricane Ivo (2007) appeared on the Main Page in the Did you know column during June.
Storm article statistics
| Grade | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 FA
|
38 | 40 | 41 | 41 |
 A
|
8 | 8 | 17 | 18 |
 GA
|
130 | 131 | 129 | 135 |
| B | 91 | 103 | 101 | 96 |
| C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Start | 211 | 208 | 209 | 208 |
| Stub | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Total | 487 | 499 | 506 | 510 |
| ω | 2.94 | 2.92 | 2.88 | 2.87 |
| percentage ≥Less than C |
45.2 | 43.5 | 43.1 | 42.5 |
| percentage ≥GA or better |
36.1 | 35.9 | 37.0 | 38.0 |
Member of the month
The June member of the month is User:Potapych. Though not officially a member of the project, Potapych is active on hurricane pages, having developed the new small infobox template introduced last month. After developing the new template, Potapych updated season articles across the board to accommodate the new template.
New members