Super Typhoon Soudelor: The year’s biggest storm as seen from space

The most powerful cyclone of 2015 is in the Pacific Ocean, heading towards Japan, Taiwan and China.

The alert status would take effect at 8 a.m., NDRRMC Executive Director Alexander Pama said.

The storm’s winds peaked Monday at 180 miles per hour, making it the strongest typhoon so far this year, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

According to the Central Weather Bureau, Soudelor was centered 1,870 kilometers east-southeast of Taipei at 2 pm, moving at a speed of 20 kph in a west-northwesterly direction.

It has already left its toll on the Northern Marianas, which declared a state of disaster and significant emergency. Of those, five have been super typhoons, which is more than four – the average for the whole year.

Pama said the super typhoon will not directly affect the Philippines and is not expected to make landfall in any part of the country but will enhance the southwest monsoon or habagat that will affect the Visayas and Mindanao.

The storm is packing maximum sustained winds of 209 kph, with gusts reaching 263 kph, it said. “There is growing concern that Taiwan and the southern Ryukyu Islands will have to contend with Soudelor as early as Thursday night or Friday with impacts lasting into early next week across eastern China”, according to Eric Leister, a meteorologist at Accuweather, USA Today reported. The storm is expected to weaken further before it hits Taiwan at the weekend, but will still pack the power of a Category 3 or 4 hurricane.

“Interests in the path of this super typhoon should prepare for storm surge, heavy rainfall, mudslides in high terrain areas and typhoon-force winds”, according to NASA.