Rapidly rising Typhoon ‘Chanthu’ heads towards Taiwan and South China

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Typhoon Chanthu is heading towards Taiwan and the southern coast of China with surging speed and strength.

A landfall is expected later this week.

In the past 36 hours the typhoon has rapidly intensified from a tropical depression into a severe typhoon.

 According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, the maximum wind may speed up to 233 kilometres per hour (145 miles per hour).

It is likely Chanthu will expand into a super typhoon in the coming hours.

Considering the trajectory of the storm, it is still unclear whether Chanthu will first pass over Taiwan before it slams into southern China or narrowly miss the island.

Either way, at its current pace, the storm will probably make a landfall on either Saturday or Sunday.

Typhoon Chanthu is just one of two dangerous weather systems that are barrelling across the Western Pacific.

Severe Tropical Storm Conson caused landfall in the Philippines overnight on Monday.

It will pass over the country before it heads north towards China’s Hainan Island.

Conson is seeing wind speeds of up to 112 kph (70 mph).

While warning signals were hoisted across the storm’s path, no major damage has been reported so far.

Chanthu is likely to be the strongest storm to hit Taiwan or mainland China after typhoon In-fa in July.

Earlier, In-fa hit China’s southeast causing severe flood.

In total, the economic losses from the typhoon and the flooding came to more than $14 billion, according to Chinese state-run media.

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