thepokergod

The latest CWB (Taiwan) radar image is impressive. Here's the link http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V5e/index.htm

CWB (of Taiwan) are going for landfall slightly to the east of HK at the moment but JMA seem to have a similar forecast to JTWC. Get ready HK and Macao! The eye of Chanchu is clearly visible on satellite now.

Luckily Macau and HK are built very well to withstand these things. If I wasn't stuck in Scotland I'd be on the next flight to Hong Kong!

Funny, the current forecast has TY Chanchu making landfall over Macau, which was the territory which contributed the name! This could potentialy be the strongest storm to affect the Pearl River Delta region in many years.

Warning #5 is out for Tropical Storm Chanchu. JTWC forecast it to make landfall on the central eastern coast of the Phillipines in about 30 hours with winds to 75kts gusting to 90kts. Expected to be a strong tropical storm once entering South China Sea but what it does in that region is anyone's guess at the mo. Current winds are 45kts gusting to 55kts. More info can be found here: JTWC I also highly recommend this great typhoon website for the Phillipines - http://www.typhoon2000.ph/

Tried to post a pic on the previous reply but it didn't work so removed it. 02W has now reached tropical depression strength and is forecast to move NW towards northern Phillipines and strengthen to Severe Tropical storm strength. Here's the latest from JTWC for the next 36 hrs:

JTWC have issued a a tropical cyclone formation alert for the disturbance over Palau, off the SE coast of the Phillipines. NRL page already refering to it as 02W. Will be keeping an eye on this.

98w has dissipated now. This is the latest from JTWC The wait goes on....

JTWC have now downgraded likelihood of tropical cyclone formation for invest 98w. More info can be found here: http://www.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc/ab/abpwweb.txt

Hello all. 98w invest in NW Pacfic looks a lot more healthy than this morning. JTWC has potential for cyclone development as fair...about time the NW Pacific got its act together! P.S Thought i'd add this for a laugh, got a Japanese oral exam on Thursday and I have to prepare a 4 min speech on one of my interests. I've decided to do it on typhoons! COuld be interesting!

Awsome radar image on the BOM website. Click on Gove and you can get a great image of the eye wall. Looks like Cape Wessel is about to get an absolute hammering in the next 12 hrs!

Thanks PK for clearing that up. Bookmarked that site, cheers. I'm really looking forward to the start of the typhoon season (when the NW Pacific winds herself up) for the selfish reason I'm moving to the region in July!! Monica is a real beast at the moment, like a true Ozzie lass!! :blush: (No offense meant! :blush: )

The eye of Monica is showing up nicely now on Gove AP 256km radar. Here's the link: Gove Radar This will start looking better over the next few hours!

Cheers for thats Wolves. The SS scale is primarily for wind speed but it also takes into account the storm surge and flooding. Also it's possible one can deduce from central pressure the intesity on the SS scale. However as is the case now, this is not always accurate!! Wikipedia has a good page here on this Wikipedia Saffir Simpson page It's an interesting quandary the different categories used by different forecasting agencies. In places such as the NW Pacific where there are so many different scales (eg created by JMA-Japan, CWB-Taiwan, PAGSA-Phillipines etc) I find the Saffir Simpson scale a good standard system to use, esp since it's the one I was taught at school! . Plus Tropical Storm Risk, which I find a very useful website, covers cyclones all over the globe and helpfully uses the SS scale to categorise all active systems regardless of basin. What is the categorisation system for the NE Pacific? These are forecasted by JTWC which is an unofficial forecasting service as such (ie. unrecognised by the World Meteorological Org) if i'm not mistaken. Is it the Mexicans who issue official forecasts for the region? Do they have their own scale? Thanksi

Yeah Monica's a cat 4 on the Aussie scale which at the moment equates to a cat 3 on the Saffir Simpson scale used by the NHC and JTWC. However here centrall pressure is 933mb at the mo which should mean cat 4 status on Saffir Simpson scall, however winds are just shy by about 5 kts, sustained 110 knots at the moment according to http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html Hoping the eye will become more defined during this present phase of intensification.