File:Typhoon Melor (28W) over the Philippines (MODIS 2015-12-24).jpg

English: Super-Typhoon Melor brought heavy rain and damaging winds to the central and northern Philippines in mid-December, 2015. At least 40 people were killed and over 130,000 homes were damaged. At least 23,000 were considered totally destroyed, according to several sources. Widespread power outages and widespread flooding were reported, and rainfall of up to 35 inches (899 mm) were measured over a five-day period (December 12 - 17) by NASA instruments.

Melor (known in the Philippines as Nona) formed east of the Philippines on December 12. Melor became more powerful and became a typhoon the next day while heading toward the Philippines. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) indicated that Melor became super typhoon with winds of 133 mph (214 km/h) just before hitting the Philippines. That is equivalent to a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

On December 15 at 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST) Typhoon Melor was still a Category 4 tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of about 132 mph (213 km/h). At that time, Melor's center was near 13.4 degrees north latitude and 120.9 degrees east longitude, about 78 nautical miles south of Manila.

After leaving the islands, Typhoon Melor quickly deteriorated and became a remnant low by December 17. The JTWC issued their final bulletin on the storm on that date, stating the Melor was not expected to regenerate as the remnants moved through the South China Sea.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA�s Terra satellite captured this true-color image of Typhoon Melor on December 15 as the storm was raking the Philippines.