Parma isn't just a city in Italy

Unfortunately, it's also a "super-typhoon" that is menacing the Philippines.

Parma might make Ketsana look like a gentle spring shower. CNN is reporting that Parma's winds are now being measured at 150mph. Remember that Ketsana yielded the heaviest rainfall in nearly 40 years, and it has disrupted life for more than 2 million people, with more than half a million of them evacuated from their homes. At least 246 people have lost their lives.

According to the NOAA, a "typhoon" is what a "hurricane" is called in the northwest Pacific Ocean, west of the dateline. That means that Parma is a Category 4 hurricane, right on the edge of becoming a Category 5 hurricane. You may remember that Katrina was briefly a Category 5 storm before striking New Orleans as a Category 3 storm.