Satellite image of Jelawat over the Philippines Sea on Tuesday night, local time, from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Super Typhoon Jelawat, packing maximum sustained winds of around 150 mph and gusts of 185 mph, is churning across the Philippine Sea.
Jelawat became a dangerous storm over the weekend with a perfectly symmetrical circulation and clear, well-defined eye. The storm underwent explosive intensification, almost doubling strength over the course of 12 hours.
The typhoon remains over very favorable ocean temperatures and is in an area of little to no wind shear. These conditions should slowly become less favorable over the next few days allowing the storm to gradually lose strength.
Jelawat is the second-straight super typhoon of 2012, following Sanba, which slammed South Korea with flooding rainfall.
The Japan Meteorological Agency is forecasting Jelawat to begin to slowly weaken as the storm heads north and west.
Despite being hundreds of miles away from the Philippines, the system has already locally heavy thunderstorms to the eastern half of the islands.
Locally heavy rainfall will continue for the Philippines through late week. Enough rain will fall in a few areas for flash flooding and mudslides, particularly in the higher terrain.
It will veer northward and northeastward by later this week, pulling away from the Philippines.
"A path like the one that is now forecast for Typhoon Jelawat would spare Taiwan any serious wind and widespread flooding rain impact," AccuWeather Expert Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews said. "If it takes a more westerly path, there could be more significant problems."
During the weekend, there is a very good chance that a weakened Typhoon Jelawat could directly hit Okinawa and other Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Damaging winds, flooding rain and battering surf may all be major impacts.
The typhoon may then weaken to a tropical storm and move on to the Japan mainland early next week.
Stay tuned to AccuWeather.com for the latest information on potential track and impact. For expert discussion and the latest satellite imagery, visit AccuWeather's West Pacific Tropical Center.
Content contributed by AccuWeather Meteorologist Meghan Evans.
Pollution levels hit all-time highs Thursday in Singapore as Indonesian fires burned out of control.
Severe thunderstorms with the risk of a few tornadoes will advance eastward across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest into Friday.
.jpg)
Evacuations and closed roads as wildfires continue to burn across the United States.
Join us on Thursday for AccuWeather LIVE as we will discuss the debate of climate change and hurricane frequency and the top five things you need to know about summer weather.
A hot and humid weekend is shaping up for Chicagoland just in time for the official start of summer, while severe thunderstorms fire nearby to the north.
Torrential rain began falling across Veracruz Thursday morning as Tropical Storm Barry near the coastline.
| Extreme | Location | |
|---|---|---|
| High | N/A | |
| Low | N/A | |
| Precip | N/A |
Circle, MT (1921)
Greatest 24-hour precipitation for the state:
11.50".
Fargo, ND (1957)
Tornado tore a 56 mile-long, 800 yard wide
path through the city. A total of 329
homes were totally destroyed and 10 people
were killed. The tornado caused $10 million
damage.
Annette, AK (1991)
Record high of 86 degrees; the old record was 79
set in 1958.
Comments
Comments left here should adhere to the AccuWeather.com Community Guidelines. Profanity, personal attacks, and spam will not be tolerated.