Hong Kong braces as typhoon approaches

Meteorological authorities forecast Linfa will move toward the coastal area between Guangdong and Fujian provinces.

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

Typhoon Linfa is also heading north toward Taiwan, while typhoon Nangka is heading north from Guam to Japan.

The typhoon is expected to weaken back into a tropical storm during Thursday before travelling directly over Hong Kong.

NASA’s Aqua satellite provided a bird’s eye view of Tropical Storm Linfa as it was approaching the southeastern China coast on July 8.

The Hong Kong Weather Observatory is expected to issue a Tropical Cyclone Warning later today as Linfa passes over during Thursday night and Friday local time. When it passed over Typhoon Nangka on July 7 from 17:54 to 19:26 UTC (1:54 to 3:26 p.m. EDT), it gathered data on sustained winds.

On Wednesday, the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs urged people in areas that could be affected by the storms to stock up on enough necessities to last one to three days.

Behind Typhoon Nangka is another tropical disturbance that appears to be poised to form into a tropical storm.

Added to that, in the atmosphere high above, the Madden-Julian Oscillation has arrived and it very much encourages storm development.

Linfa’s heavy rains caused flooding as far south as Manila – over 200 miles away from where the storm center made landfall – and it’s broad circulation continues to draw rain bands over Luzon on Tuesday.

Computer model simulations of the track of Typhoon Chan-hom. The current El Nino event has driven unusually warm waters in the Western Pacific Ocean, resulting in a particularly strong West Pacific typhoon season so far in 2015.

The super Typhoon is currently equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, with wind speeds of 145mph and gusts up to 175mph! If it forms in the central Pacific, it would be named Ela.

In other words, once the MJO turned favorable over the abnormally mild Pacific, it’s as if someone lit a match – and boom.