Crazy satellite images show Super Typhoon Meranti swallowing tiny island
At just 32 square miles in area, the island of Itbayat in the Philippines presents a small target for massive storms to strike. However, early on Wednesday morning, local time, Super Typhoon Meranti proved that being a small target in a big sea does not offer protection from the worst storms.
Super Typhoon Meranti -- the strongest storm on Earth in 2016 so far -- swallowed Itbayat whole within its cavernous eye.
This means the island took a ferocious hit from two sides of the storm's eyewall, where its most intense winds and some of the heaviest rains are located.
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At one point, in an image that was shared widely on social media, the entire island fit within the storm's dead calm eye, surrounded by a ferocious wall of thunderstorms containing wind gusts greater than 215 miles per hour.
The island is technically the first landfall point for Super Typhoon Meranti (known as "Ferdie" in the Philippines), which is expected to swipe southern Taiwan throughout much of the day Wednesday, local time, before making a second landfall in China, between Shantou and Xiamen.
Here's a wider view of the huge storm:
The storm is massive, making the island's predicament all the more unusual.
In the satellite image below, an arrow points to the center of the eye, where the island wound up.
Because of likely storm damage to the sparse infrastructure on the island, along with continued windy and rainy conditions, it may be at least a day before the fate of the nearly 3,000 residents of Itbayat is known.
From there, the storm is likely to bring hurricane force conditions in southern Taiwan, including Khaesong City, which is the second-largest city on the island.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
