Tropical Storm Hagupit by Darren Bett
Tropical storm Hagupit has formed out in the Western Pacific ocean and may well be on course to become the 16th Typhoon of the 2008 Typhoon season.
According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau, Hagupit is moving in a northwestly direction which will first bring the storm close to Luzon and the north of the Philippines before reaching southern Taiwan and finally making landfall across southern China in Hong Kong around the middle of next week.
On Saturday, tropical storm Hagupit was about 890 miles (1430 km) west of Guam and is packing sustained winds of 47 mph (75 km/h) and is moving west-northwest at about 10 mph (17 km/h).
Hagupit is forecast to strengthen over the warm waters of the South China Sea over the next few days to become a category two typhoon with sustained winds around 100 mph (160 km/h). By next Monday and Tuesday, the outer bands of Hagupit will affect Luzon and southern Taiwan, bringing torrential rain and strong, damaging winds.
After the widespread and severe flooding produced by Tropical storm Sinlaku, which hit eastern Taiwan last weekend, further torrential rain is likely to give rise to yet more landslides and flooding to the island. Warnings were also in place for coastal parts of Luzon with hundreds being told to evacuate from low lying areas.
