Pacific Daily News: Nangka to bring “catastrophic damage” today

The typhoon is forecast to move northwest at a speed of 10 km per hour, and will probably hit the coast of the two provinces Wednesday night, the National Meteorological Centre (NMC) said. Linfa came ashore on Sunday morning, Philippines time, in the northern part of Luzon with sustained winds of 60 miles per hour. The US has a large military presence on Okinawa, mainly at Anderson Air Base.

Typhoon Nangka is expected to make its closest point of approach to the Northern Marianas early Thursday afternoon.

Bureau Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn (辛在勤) said there was no need to panic, after a CNN report that said Chan-hom had a good chance of becoming a “super typhoon”. As of Tuesday, the forecast calls for the typhoon to weaken dramatically to Category 1 status, though flooding will be a serious threat in the rugged terrain along the southeast China coast. About 2 million people live in Wenzhou.

“More than half of Shanghai is less than six feet above sea level”, Masters said.

Typhoon Chan-hom is moving toward the coastal area of Zhejiang and Fujian.

Storm warnings were issued in at least 14 areas of the main Philippine island of Luzon as Linfa moved slowly across the north of the Southeast Asian archipelago.

In most years, the Philippine Sea grows clusters of thunderstorms, and the atmosphere above is ideal in forming these into cyclones.

A lack of adequate outflow can often stymie such storms.

To the east, Typhoon Nangka also is forecast to become a major storm as it passes north of Guam. Additionally a fourth typhoon may form just behind Nangka on Monday. This system may threaten Hawaii by the weekend, which is why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has flown hurricane hunter aircraft to the islands – in case storm surveillance is needed.

Taiwan is also expected to be affected.

Meanwhile, the Southwest monsoon or “HABAGAT” is expected to bring moderate to occasionally heavy rains over the Calayan and Babuyan group of islands, Ilocos region and over the provinces of Benguet, Zambales and Bataan.

Computer model simulations of the track of Typhoon Chan-hom.

The 2015 Atlantic hurricane season hasn’t seen much activity so far, but the Eastern Pacific hasn’t been so lucky.

One of these cyclones, Raquel, unusually, was south of the equator. If it forms in the central Pacific, it would be named Ela.