What do recent weather patterns tell us about Typhoon Haiyan?

Affected residents wash their clothes on a canal in the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan on November 10, 2013 in Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan, packing maximum sustained winds of 195 mph (315 kph), slammed into the southern Philippines and left a trail of destruction in multiple provinces, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate and making travel by air and land to hard-hit provinces difficult. Around 10,000 people are feared dead in the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year.

As the Philippines tries to recover from Typhoon Haiyan, scientists are looking more closely at the storm.

As the Philippines tries to recover from Typhoon Haiyan, scientists are looking more closely at the storm. With wind speeds of more than 190 miles per hour, Haiyan was the most powerful tropical storm to make landfall in recorded history.

At a UN Climate Conference in Warsaw, Poland, The Philippines delegate Yeb Sano delivered a passionate address to the group:

"We are conscious of the state of the science and we do not attribute a single weather event but we also know the trend of typhoons and the shift of our typhoon belt and the implications of what's happening on the ground."

For more on the strength and potential causes of this devastating typhoon, we're joined by Quirin Schiermeier, senior reporter with Nature who writes about extreme weather.