The tropics sure are giving me a lot to write about. My latest "Storm Pundit" post, entitled "Nothing But Land to Stop Hurricane Dean...and Supertyphoon Sepat," is now up. Both of these storms are scary, and Dean, now officially a Category 1 hurricane, is predicted to be as strong as Category 4 by the end of the forecast period.
Here's the latest track, which is basically unchanged except that the Lesser Antilles are now under a hurricane warning:
As I put it in the latest Storm Pundit post: "Already, I think it's fair to say that this storm is going to provide us with much more drama than the entire 2006 Atlantic hurricane season."
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Sepat is a big, big deal -- some forecasts say it will hit 258 km/h tonight (Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale). From the South China Post, usually a very reserved and cautious daily (recalling their coverage of SARS) . . .
"The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued both land and sea warnings for Typhoon Sepat yesterday, and warned the public to be on full alert for the strongest typhoon to bear down on Taiwan so far this year.
"Sepat, which has continued gaining both strength and speed, was centered at only 180 kilometers southeast of Taiwan's southeastern Taitung County at 8:30 p.m. yesterday.
"It was moving northwesterly directly toward the island at a speed of 20km per hour, and packing maximum sustained winds up to 234kph.
"CWB data and satellite pictures show the storm is a well-structured "supertyphoon," and can be highly destructive.
"With a radius of 250km, the typhoon covers an area larger than the size of Taiwan.
"The typhoon is expected to cut through southern Taiwan before moving into the Taiwan Strait on its way to southeast China.
"The whole island will be covered with torrential rain that may set off flash floods and landslides, according to CWB meteorologists.
"They warned that the threats from Sepat will intensify if it changes course to move from south toward north, to hit northern Taiwan directly.
"Heavy rain with roaring thunder started pounding most areas of Taipei at around 9 p.m."
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/2007/08/17/118682/Strongest-typhoon.htm
And Shanghai Daily says it will be the strongest tropical storm ever to hit the Chinese mainland (I have no way to verify that but that's a pretty strong thing to say).
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200708/20070817/article_32…