Keith was a recurving TC which passed between the Islands of Rota and Tinian (only apart) on the west-bound leg of its recurving track. NEXRAD imagery from Guam indicated the eye wall cloud of Keith never touched land as it threaded the narrow channel between these two islands. As such, the Mariana Islands were spared the full force of Keith. Keith's compact wind and cloud structure were revealed by Guam's NEXRAD Equatorial westerly winds bounded by twin near-equatorial troughs preceded the formation of Keith and a Southern Hemisphere twin. Severe Tropical Storm Linda (Openg) Typhoon Linda, after moving through the Philippines and the South China Sea, hit the Malay Peninsula on November 3. It restrengthened in the Bay of Bengal, but vertical shear caused Linda to dissipate on the 9th. On 2 November, Linda hit the southern tip of Vietnam, the Cà Mau Province, causing unprecedented havoc with 3,070 people being killed in Vietnam, most of which drowned at sea. Nearly 80,000 houses are reported as destroyed and almost 140,000 as badly damaged. Infrastructure (roads, schools and hospitals) also suffered heavily and huge swathes of rice paddy were swamped. The hardest hit provinces were Kiên Giang, Cà Mau, Bạc Liêu, Sóc Trăng, Trà Vinh, Bến Tre and Vũng Tàu. It was the worst typhoon to strike the area in 100 years. Damages from the storm amounted to VND 7 trillion (US$409 million). Elsewhere in Thailand and the Philippines, Linda caused further deaths from flooding and heavy damage. Tropical Storm Mort (Pining) From November 12–16, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration tracked the storm, and named it Pining. The remnants of Tropical Storm Mort brought locally heavy rainfall to areas of northern Luzon, resulting in minor flooding. Typhoon Paka (Rubing) The final super typhoon of the year developed in the Central Pacific on November 28. It moved westward, strengthening into a tropical storm before crossing the International Date Line on December 7. Conditions were marginally favorable for development, and Paka remained a tropical storm until December 10, when it was able to become a typhoon. Five days later, Paka reached Super Typhoon strength, the eleventh of the year. The next day it crossed over Guam, and on December 18, Paka reached a peak of 185 mph winds. After causing major damage across the smaller Western Pacific island groups, Paka rapidly weakened and dissipated on December 22. Typhoon Paka first impacted