Jelawat has done what Sanba did recently, rapidly intensified, nearly doubling in strength within just 12 hours becoming a SUPER Typhoon over the warm waters of the Philippine Sea. Impress even more is the fact the the second straight super typhoon.

This time around, 160 mph Super Typhoon Jelawat will continue it’s current northwesterly path but then will feel the effects of a cold front sweeping off the continent which should keep the system off Taiwan to the east but this means Jelawat could well take aim at the southern Japanese, Ryukyu Islands and even Okinawa.

This could be a third significant hit on Okinawa this season with the previous two, powerful system’s making a direct hit. Could this be a third? This emphisizes just how prone this island is to typhoon’s. Imagine if the same location along the US East Coast or Gulf Coast was hit twice by a major hurricane and a third was looming. Jelawat may approach the same intensity as Sanba did with pressure nearing that of Sanba’s owhich hit 900 mb. JMA is forecasting Jelawat’s pressure to drop all the way to 895 mb. Luckily, Jelawat is soon to peak if it hasn’t already and should begin the weakening process well before approaching any land as cooler waters and an increase in shear is soon to interact with the system.

According to The Weather Channel, this is the third consecutive typhoon in the western Pacific to become ‘super’, following Bolaven and Sanba and you have to go back to 1997 for the last time this has happened. This also occured back in 1954, 1957, 1958, and 1963.

Here’s a latest update on Super Typhoon Jelawat by Meteorologist Rob Speta of westernpacificweather.com.providing detail on potential impacts.

Tags: super typhoon jelawat, typhoon jelawat