Double Typhoon Trouble in the Western Pacific!
Powerful Typhoon Lekima swept into portions of eastern China early Saturday morning. Flooding rains and damaging winds ravaged a region including Shanghai, the world’s most populous city. Fortunately, Lekima is weakening as it skirts the eastern side of the Yellow Sea. Attention now turns to Tropical Storm Krosa, a threat to impact southern Japan later this week.
Super Typhoon Lekima loading in our city pic.twitter.com/EKfCkKlSEf
— Helen Huang (@helenhuang03) August 10, 2019
Massive typhoon strikes eastern China. #Lekima #ClimateBreakdown pic.twitter.com/3tNOneirq5
— Callum Grieve (@callumgrieve) August 10, 2019
Typhoon Lekima made landfall near the city of Taizhou, south of Shanghai, around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. Reports of winds to 150 kph have been received, leading to millions of residents losing power. Thousands of flights and train trips have been cancelled, and the Disneyland in Shanghai was forced to close for the first time since opening in 2016. Major flooding and landslides have also occurred. One landslide caused a dam failure in Zhejiang province, catastrophically flooding a rural village of 120 people. At least 22 deaths have been reported from this village alone.
As the Lekima clean-up begins, forecasters are now watching Tropical Storm Krosa. Krosa has been nearly stationary over the past day or so over the open Pacific, but a northwestward motion will increase shortly (see forecast map above). Krosa’s intensity has been limited by the slow movement, but it will be moving into somewhat more favorable conditions. Some slow intensification is expected, allowing Krosa to regain typhoon status. A landfall over southern Japan appears likely by later this week, perhaps Thursday. Damaging winds, flooding rains, and a significant storm surge will be threats.
