Typhoon Wipha Intercept Mission

[Typhoon Hunter]

Typhoon Wipha has been cranking up pretty quickly over the Pacific ocean south of Okinawa and is now a 75kt typhoon according to JMA. Just to annoy Peter I'm also going to refer to JTWC forecasts as well as CWB (Taiwan.)

JMA are going for landfall near the city of Wenzhou on Wednesday afternoon as 65kt (10 min average) typhoon whilst JTWC are going for 120kts landfall near the town of Ningbo, which is north of Wenzhou. CWB forecast landfall somewhere in between the two cities.

My plan is to sit and wait until tomorrow morning then move down the coast accordingly to the place which looks like getting a big hit. I'll post more updates as the situation develops!

Here's the latest visible satellite:

[Chacor]

As it stands, JTWC are going for 105 kt direct hit on Shanghai itself, you might not have to travel far if at all.

[Typhoon Hunter]

Hey Chacor.

You're right, I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to see what the deal is. Since it's forecast to be moving up the coast I want to place myself on the northern side of the storm. Ningbo seems like a good position at the moment.

[alan1961]

Hey Chacor.

You're right, I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to see what the deal is. Since it's forecast to be moving up the coast I want to place myself on the northern side of the storm. Ningbo seems like a good position at the moment.

Hey Typhoon Hunter..good luck with the interception of Wipha..take a look at the video i posted from CNN of Nari hitting South Korea...its on the nari posts

[Typhoon Hunter]

Thanks Alan, I'll take a look at that.

Wipha has bombed and it set to tear into eastern China after brushing northern Taiwan. JMA have it at 90kts and JTWC at 120kts. I'll be flying to Wenzhou tomorrow morning and then will re-position if need be.

[Typhoon Hunter]

Now a 100kts monster typhoon and forecast to make direct hit on the major city of Wenzhou which has a population of over 5 million people. I'm about to head to aiport and get flight to Wenzhou which leaves in about 3 hours....more updates when I'm on the ground....

[Stephanie]

Becareful Typhoon Hunter.

Great shot of Wipha. I hope it doesn't strengthen any further!

[Category 5]

Stay safe out there.

[Typhoon Hunter]

On the ground in Wenzhou and most agencies going for direct hit on the city as a powerful typhoon. Landfall time is 4am local which is crap for any filming and photos. If current forecasts hold true there's going to be a lot of damage here tomorrow. Going to head out and take some pics soon then batten down the hatches tonight.

Local radio has been focusing on Wipha naturally and I've received automatic text messages warning of the impending storm.

JMA are still holding Wipha at 100kts (10 min average) and JTWC have it as a 135kt supertyphoon.

[Typhoon Hunter]

Wenzhou got very lucky!

Wipha made landfall to the south of the city and we got nothing more than some heavy rain and a few squalls. It was impossible to relocated since there are only small towns to the south of Wenzhou who's local police would have been extremely suspicious if some foreigner suddenly rolled into town to record the show!