Tropical activity over the Western Pacific has ramped up this week. Right now, two monster tropical cyclones, Ragasa and Neoguri, are ongoing. Both have rapidly intensified into Super Typhoon status, with Category 4 winds, and are expected to gain further strength and reach the maximum strength of a Category 5 equivalent storm.
While Super Typhoon Neoguri will remain far from any land interaction, the greatest concern is with the Ragasa, which is forecast to graze across the northern part of the Philippines on Monday and then head towards Hong Kong on Tuesday. It will remain an extremely powerful Pacific storm.
The early Sunday morning visible satellite image revealed that both typhoons are very large and undergoing rapid intensification. They support winds up to 120 knots and the central pressure in the 940s.
The Neoguri storm remains slow-moving and drifting northwest, while Super Typhoon Ragasa is tracking west-northwest and fast-approaching the northern Philippines and its islands.
Both storms went through explosive phases this weekend, following the unusually warm oceanic waters of the Western Pacific, a trend in anomaly observed in recent years. Strongly anomalous waters support more rapid strengthening of tropical cyclones, leading to their higher peak intensity.
The animation below indicates how Ragasa and Neoguri have experienced rapid strengthening over the past 24 hours.
Evacuations in Philippines, Taiwan as super typhoon nears
The Philippines and Taiwan ordered evacuations on Sunday (Sep 21) ahead of possible flooding and landslides as Super Typhoon Ragasa approached, gaining strength on its way to an eventual collision with southern China.
The storm was undergoing “rapid intensification” and expected to make landfall on the sparsely populated Batanes or Babuyan islands by Tuesday afternoon, the Philippine weather agency said.
Maximum sustained winds were 185 kilometres per hour at the storm’s center as of 11am, with gusts reaching up to 230kmh as it moved westward toward the archipelago nation, the weather service said.
In Taiwan, authorities said nearly 300 people will be evacuated from Hualien County in the east, adding that figures could change depending on the typhoon’s movement.
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