Super Typhoon Rammasun Strikes China with 155 MPH Winds
Super Typhoon Rammasun made landfall in southeastern China earlier on Friday with winds of 155 MPH, making the storm equivalent to that of a borderline category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. Satellite and radar imagery coming from the storm are downright impressive, showing Rammasun's nearly-perfect structure.
Rammasun killed more than 50 people as it moved through the Philippines on Wednesday, causing heavy damage from winds and major flooding (pictured above). The super typhoon made landfall in China's Hainan Province around 3:30 PM local time on Friday, making the storm the strongest to hit China since 1973's Typhoon Nora.
The VIIRS sensor on board the Suomi weather satellite took the following visible and infrared images of Rammasun on Friday, shortly before it made landfall in Hainan Province:
The storm is nearly perfect, with a textbook structure and about as close to symmetrical as one could look for in a tropical system.
Tropical weather expert Brian McNoldy posted the following radar image to his website this afternoon, showing a radar loop of Rammasun as it made landfalls in both Hainan and Guangdong Provinces before continuing northwest towards mainland China.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Rammasun to make its fourth and final landfall near the Chinese/Vietnamese border around 0600 UTC (200AM Eastern Time) as a powerful cyclone with winds between 140 and 145 MPH.
The typically-active western Pacific typhoon season is staying true to form, with another tropical storm gathering strength to the east of the Philippines. The system will strengthen into a typhoon before threatening Taiwan and mainland China early next week.
