Super Typhoon Nepartak, a meteorological monster, closes in on Taiwan
UPDATE: July 7, 2016, 5:16 p.m. EDT Super Typhoon Nepartak is making landfall in the next few hours, close to dawn local time. It has weakened to Category 4 status due mainly to interaction with Taiwan's high terrain. It remains a life-threatening storm, however, particularly due to its heavy rainfall potential.
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Video emerging from the east-central coastline of Taiwan showed howling winds and flying debris, with sunrise likely to reveal more of the damage as the storm moves through.
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Super Typhoon Nepartak is barreling toward a potentially devastating direct hit on the island of Taiwan on Thursday night or Friday morning local time as a Category 4 or 5 storm.
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It has maintained its Category 5 intensity for nearly two full days -- a rarity for any tropical cyclone, with a peak intensity of 175 miles per hour sustained winds at one point on Wednesday.
As of Thursday morning eastern time, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour, and was located about 225 miles southeast of Taipei. It was moving west-northwest at 9 miles per hour.
Tapping into unusually mild ocean waters and unencumbered by any inhibiting atmospheric conditions, the storm intensified from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 within a 24-hour span during July 4 and 5.
Typhoon Nepartak is the most powerful to form so far this year anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is likely to cause widespread flooding and mudslides when it intersects with Taiwan's high terrain.
Taiwan is no stranger to tropical storms and typhoons, but if Nepartak hits as a Category 5 storm it would be among the strongest storms to hit there in several decades.
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High winds, torrential rains and high waves will affect much of the island, including the city of Taipei.
The storm is weakening as it approaches the island, but it is running out of time to weaken significantly before crossing the coast. This means that it is likely to still be a Category 4 or 5 storm when it makes landfall.
The storm has taken advantage of abundant warm waters and low atmospheric wind shear to explode in intensity and maintain its extraordinary strength.
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Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau has issued typhoon warnings, extremely heavy rainfall warnings, as well as "extremely torrential rainfall" warnings for much of the island, with the core of the storm expected to hit the east-central coast, potentially bringing some of the worst winds and highest storm surge flooding to Taipei.
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Super Typhoon Nepartak is the strongest storm in the western Pacific since Super Typhoon Souldelor in August 2015.
During Thursday afternoon and evening in Taiwan (Taiwan is 12 hours ahead of eastern time), conditions will rapidly deteriorate as the initial rainbands from the storm begin lashing the coast.
The storm track poses a particular threat to Taipei, a city of nearly 3 million people, since it will likely be on the northern end of the storm's strongest winds in its large eyewall, where the core of the highest winds are found.
If eyewall winds encroach upon the city, then that will likely dramatically increase the number of people affected by power outages and damage to structures.
According to weather.com, Typhoon Soudelor caused the largest power outage in the history of the electric utility there, leaving 3.6 million customers without power.
In addition to the high winds, another major threat to Taiwan is extremely heavy rainfall that will likely trigger flash flooding and mudslides.
Super Typhoon Soudelor dumped more than 4 feet of rain in Yilan County, Taiwan, which is a mountainous area the northeastern part of the island nation. This is about equivalent to the average annual rainfall of New York City.
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.
