A typhoon has killed more than a dozen people as it approached Taiwan and China. The typhoon, named Gaemi by the Japan Meteorological Agency and Carina by the Philippine weather service, is expected to be the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years, according to Reuters.
Typhoon Gaemi/Carina is now the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane (maximum sustained winds of 111-129 mph or 178-208 km/h) on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Gaemi will move over northern Taiwan Wednesday night, local time, before emerging over the Taiwan Strait Thursday morning.
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Taiwan weather radar shows Typhoon Gaemi from 7am to 9pm local time Tuesday. (Central Weather Service) |
On Wednesday, the typhoon looped its path, approaching the coast of Taiwan before skimming the coast and moving east. This phenomenon is caused by interaction with mountains in Taiwan and is not uncommon for storms in the areasays Jason Nichols, AccuWeather’s chief global expert.
“The loop in Gaemi’s track is caused by the orographic block deflecting the coast of Taiwan, creating an asymmetric flow over the center of the typhoon,” Nichols explains.
Although Typhoon Gaemi/Carina has not directly impacted the Philippines, it has caused severe flooding in the archipelago, killing more than a dozen people, according to The Associated Press. The Philippine Coast Guard said it has been overwhelmed with calls for rescue operations due to flooding for residents in the capital, Manila.
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Interaction with mountains in Taiwan will also cause the storm to weaken, but the storm could regain some strength over the strait before making landfall in eastern China’s Fujian province Thursday evening or overnight local time. Due to the impact, Gaemi/Carina is a 4 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ tropical cyclone scale in Taiwan and a 2 in eastern China.
The typhoon will bring a swath of heavy rain to the northern Philippines, southern Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan, and China’s Zhejiang, Fujian and eastern Guangdong provinces from Wednesday through Saturday, local time. Rainfall will spread northward, reaching China’s Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Hebei provinces from Saturday night through Monday, local time. Total rainfall will reach 24 inches (600 mm) from Taiwan and Fujian to China’s southern Zhejiang provinces, with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 36 inches (900 mm), causing flooding, mudslides and prolonged transportation and logistics delays.
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Wind gusts of up to 140 mph (225 km/h), with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 170 mph (270 km/h), are expected in northern Taiwan and parts of the eastern coast of China near the storm’s center. This is expected to cause power outages and structural damage. In eastern China, wind impacts could extend northward to the Yangtze River Valley from Friday into the weekend.
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Other than Gaemi/Carina, no further tropical development is expected in the entire basin through the weekend. Conditions may remain marginally favorable for development in the Philippine Sea next week.
