TL;DR: the big tropical news is Ragasa is now a 140 knot (255kph, 160mph, Category Five) Super Typhoon. Still looks to pass between The Philippines and Taiwan before landfall in southern China. In the Atlantic, Gabrielle remains fishy, less of a concern for Bermuda.
As the sun sets in the Western Pacific, Super-Typhoon Ragasa is an impressive storm bearing down on the Luzon Strait between The Philippines and Taiwan …
Here is a tighter view of the eye, from Himawari 9:
Fortunately, the forecast is not so apocalyptic as it was yesterday. Although Ragasa should continue to intensify for another 24 hours, the track has continued to shift south away from the Hong-Kong/Macao conglomeration. Whereas the forecast yesterday had 140 million people in the path, the new forecast is down to “only” 35 million, and the density of infrastructure is far less, so economic impacts are only 5% of what they would be if the storm made landfall only 100 miles further north!
While the numbers and economic impacts are not as eye-catching, we shouldn’t forget about northern Luzon or the islands of the Luzon straits, who face a very powerful storm and in the case of the islands, potential devastation. .
In the Atlantic Tropical Storm Gabrielle should become a hurricane later today, but continues to track east of Bermuda, which may get some rain bands but nothing serious.
The only significant impact should be waves, and swell from the storm should reach the US Coast today and persist for several days. There are rip current advisories up for a lot of the Florida coast today, expect those to creep northward to cover much of the shoreline over the next day or so.
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