Powerful Typhoon Krosa Makes Landfall on Taiwan - Twice.

TyphoonHunter, thanks for getting this story out so quickly. It will now show up on the home page for four hours. If new developments justify it, I'll renew this flag for another cycle.

See this story for a look back at some previous typhoons.

Morning all to those on the North/South American continent and afternoon to those in Europe.

Forecasts for where Krosa is expected to go have been wobbling around a bit for the last day. The lastest outputs from the numerous weather supercomputers are now looking more and more like there could be a direct hit on Taiwan. Krosa has already intensified pretty rapidly and conditions are right for further development. Indeed the non-official Joint Typhoon Warning Centre forecast Krosa to become a monster cat. 4 storm with 125kts sustained winds as it passes just offshore Taiwan.

Once things become a bit more clear forecast wise I'll attempt to move to the appropriate location....looking like Taiwan at the moment.

We pray for those likely to be affected..

The forecast is now looking more certain that Krosa will make a direct hit on Taiwan in about 48 hours time. Over the last 3 hours the eye has been tracking west which is quite a substantial jog. The more west the eye heads the more likely Taiwan is going to sustain a direct hit.

I'm off to bed soon. My flight leaves tomorrow at 1500 local and gets into Taipei (via Macau) at 2120 local. More updates in the morning....

direct hit or not, we are already getting clobbered with rain and high winds in north/central Taiwan.

Hey Bushman. Those would have been some thunderstoms embedded in the outermost outflow of Krosa (pls correct me meteorologists if I'm wrong.)

Judging by the latest satellite loop you shouldn't have any heavy rain for the next few hours.

Hey Hunter,

Hope you had a pleasant journey.  As a person who went through the '60s Alaskan earthquake, Guam's Typhoon Pamela, and the '79 President's Day Blizzard, I was wondering, did you experience any major natural disasters as a youth?  Or is chasing the wrath of Mom Nature just part of your makeup?  :)

Hey JAWnOn. I've always been fascinated by nature at it's most violent be it volcanoes, earthquakes, typhoons etc. Growing up in Britain I was not exposed to any sort of major natural disaster. So yeah I suppose I was born with the desire to witness and record nature's fury!

Krosa has just been upgraded to a supertyphoon by JTWC with 1 min winds of 130kts. JMA are carrying this as a very strong storm with sustained 10 min winds of 100kts. I'm heading to the airport in 20 mins for 1505 local departure to Macau then on to Taipei at 1735 local.

Will night stop near Taipei tonight then move into position early tomorrow morning. NE coastal area is looking like the place to head at the moment but this may change.

I will be meeting up with my good friend and fellow intercept partner Geoff Mackley (aka Dangerman - Discovery Channel.) Updates can also be found at his website www.rambocam.com

I'll post updates here once I'm on the ground.

Oh,  thought you were already there as of this morning.  Go figure, I post that I've given the last update and go away from the computer for an hour.  Now with the latest JMA info,  the darn thing looks like it's changing directions back towards us a bit.   Got to love Mom nature... :)

 Have a safe flight.  And I'm looking forward to your updates.

Thanks mate.

The track is swinging about more often than a wind screen wiper on full speed! Its looking pretty certain that Taiwan will be impacted in a major way. I'm sitting at Shanghai Airport now waiting for my flight. I think it's unlikely Okinawa is going to get hit bad but you may get some showers in a few days time.

I'll be out and about today covering the storm so don't expect any updates until tomorrow. Look like Krosa will pass just off the north coast of Taiwan in about 14 hours times. Already raining quite heavily here in Taipei but conditions are expected to worsen further as the day goes on.

Reviewed various mapping sites, and this thing is predicted to be all over the place for the next few days. Right now, we have very little more than a few gusts and scattered rainfall on island. But it could still hook back around according to several of the predictions. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen one of these monsters sneak around and hit island after going to the west of us.

Looking forward to the coverage from your side....

Krosa ended up doing a nice corkscrew over Ilan.  broke a recording instrument in the process.

Hey Hunter, you head back to mainland? Drop a note to let us know you're okay. And nice work on the pics Bushman. I saw some footage of the rainfall on YouTube. No wonder you had a hard time trying to snap shots.

Hey everyone....just got back from the East Coast....in Taoyuan now. Got loads of pictures and video. Damage is not too bad on the east coast, Taiwanese infrastructure held up extremely well as always! I'll post a proper update in the next hour or so.

Hey Hunter, welcome back. Glad to know you're okay. That is one great shot of the almost invisible van. Feeling waterlogged yet? :)

Great work, guys! The footage is amazing.

Mass evacuations in China as Krosa continues along the coast...

any news about Shihmen reservoir?  i'll bet Taoyuan will be out of water for weeks.