The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday said that it could issue both sea and land warnings for Typhoon Chan-hom today as the storm approaches Taiwan.
A sea warning could be issued in the morning, followed by a land warning in the afternoon, forecasters said, adding that the typhoon could have a significant impact on northern Taiwan.
As of 5:30pm, Chan-hom was centered 1,240km east-southeast of Taipei, moving northwest at a speed of 22kph and packing sustained winds of 136.8kph, with maximum sustained winds of 172.8kph, the bureau said.
If Chan-hom sticks to its current path, its center could pass north of Taiwan between tomorrow and Saturday.
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.”
Shin said that neither the strength nor trajectory of Chan-hom is unusual for Taiwan.
On a CNN weather forecast, anchor Tom Sater described the storm as a “cannonball,” and said: “If [Chan-hom] gets up to 240 [kph], that will be a super typhoon status.”
Meanwhile, meteorologists said that Chan-hom and Tropical Storm Linfa, which is off southwestern Taiwan, are an example of the “Fujiwara effect.”
The effect refers to the tendency of two nearby storms to orbit each other, spiral into a point between them and eventually merge, meteorologist Wu Teh-jung (吳德榮) said.
However, due to its small size, Linfa is not likely to influence Chan-hom’s trajectory at the moment, Wu said.
As of 2pm, Linfa was centered 240km west of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving northwest at a speed of 7kph. It has sustained winds of 108kph, with maximum sustained winds of 137kph, the bureau said.
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