While some of us have been selfishly obsessed with the aftermath of Idalia (and a reminder as things are cleaned up, while some areas got off easy, the storm caused catastrophic impacts in parts of Florida and the south) , things have been spinning up in the West Pacific. Typhoon Saola is making landfall in China today (tonight China Standard Time), and is forecast to cause a huge amount of damage. Here is my TAOS/TC model’s impact swath using the Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast as of 11am this morning (1 September):
The economic impact numbers are eye-watering, at well over $60 Billion USD between Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao. Over 100 million people live within the likely tropical storm wind zone, and 26 million are likely to experience hurricane force winds. According to AP, most of the region is “at a standstill.”
As if that’s not enough, Typhoon Haikui looks destined to hit Taiwan Sunday before hitting the mainland early next week, although likely only a tropical storm by that point. Estimated impacts to Taiwan are likely in the $3 to $5 Billion range, but it’s still a few days away. And tropical storm Kirogi is headed towards southern Japan, but is likely to only be a depression by the time it arrives early next week. Here are all three tracks …
There is a traffic jam in the Atlantic, only threat at the moment is to Bermuda (which brushed by Franklin, and may see the remnants of Idalia). More on that in a bit …