Truemors
UPDATE #3: Typhoon Kalmaegi tore through Taiwan yesterday unleashing torrential rains and ferocious winds over 90 miles per hour. The BBC are reporting six people killed and four more are missing. The storm went on to make landfall over the eastern Chinese province of Fujian.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) has downgraded the Kalmaegi to tropical storm strength with sustained winds of 35 knots gusting to 50 knots. The storm is expected to hit Shanghai in the next few hours.
The storm is expected to intensify slightly when is crosses back into the East China Sea and it could go on to affect the Korean peninsula in the next couple of days. Kalmaegi means sea gull in Korean.
Below is the previous entry:
Typhoon Kalmaegi has continued to strengthen and is heading towards to the north of Taiwan with winds gusting up to 120 miles per hour.
Kalmaegi is currently about 150 nautical miles southeast of Taipei and is moving north northwest at 13 miles per hour. Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau has issued land and sea warnings as the storm moves closer to shore. Kalmaegi means sea gull in Korean.
JMA forecast Kalmaegi to continue to move northwards and it could impact the east coast of China from tomorrow afternoon onwards. There is still some uncertainty into what affect the storm will have on China depending on whether it makes landfall on Taiwan or not. This is the 7th storm of the 2008 Pacific typhoon season. Last month typhoon Fengshen tore through the central Philippines before making a direct hit on Hong Kong as a tropical storm.
Every year typhoons regularly strike the nations straddling the northwest Pacific Ocean.
This is a developing situation and at present it is unclear as to the potential impact this storm may have on the Philippines, Taiwan and China. I will provide updates as often as possible.
For more information please consult the following websites.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/default.stm - BBC news article
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/typh/ - JMA typhoon forecast page
www.cwb.gov.tw - Taiwan Central Weather Bureau
www.typhoonfury.com - Website with photos and videos of current and previous high impact storms.
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