Thursday, July 22, 2021

Typhoon Strengthens As It Turns Course Towards China, Taiwan




Mary Gilbert


Strengthening Typhoon In-Fa was nearly stationary Thursday evening, local time, as it spun in the western Philippine Sea, sending impacts in the form of wind and rain to Taiwan's eastern shores as it crept closer to its eventual landfall in China this weekend.

Forecasters monitoring In-fa said the tropical system had winds equivalent to Category 2 hurricane (sustained winds of 96-109 mph or 154-176 km/h) on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale on Thursday. 

The typhoon is expected to move slowly but methodically to the northwest for much of the week and ultimately impact portions of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and China. While areas hard-hit by flooding rain in parts of central China may be spared the heaviest downpours from In-fa, there may still be some tropical downpours that move into these same areas early next week as well.

In-fa strengthened into typhoon force on Tuesday night, making it the third tropical entity to reach typhoon-strength in the West Pacific basin this season. The first of the season was Typhoon Surigae back in April and the second was Typhoon Champi which sprung to life in late June.

In-fa is also known as Fabian in the Philippines due to the naming convention of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

mpacts to the Ryukyu Islands began early Wednesday morning, local time, as the outer rain bands of In-fa move over the area. For Taiwan, rounds of heavy rain from the periphery of the storm began moving across the island early Thursday, local time. Strong wind gusts will gradually increase across the region Thursday into Thursday night.


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