Typhoon Saola, a powerful tropical cyclone with winds approaching those of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes, passed close to Taiwan on Wednesday. It also moved north towards Hong Kong and mainland China.
Saola was about 110 miles southwest of Taiwan on Wednesday morning and was causing some rain there, according to the island’s Central Weather Bureau. It sailed through a body of water, the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines.
The storm has already led to evacuations in the Philippines and some school closures and travel disruptions in Taiwan, but has not been linked to any deaths or injuries.
Saola generated sustained winds of 155 mph on Wednesday, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a United States Navy meteorological service. That’s 2 mph under a Category 5 storm on the quintuple wind scale used to measure tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean.
Saola was more powerful than Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 storm that was advancing along Florida’s west coast. Idalia was expected to reach Category 4 strength before making landfall on Wednesday morning.
Saola was also stronger than Hurricane Franklin, a Category 3 storm that swept near Bermuda early Wednesday, sending life-threatening fires and currents along the coasts of that island and up the eastern seaboard of the United States.
Hurricanes and typhoons are tropical cyclones with sustained winds of at least 120 km per hour. The term “hurricane” refers to tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin; “typhoon” refers to typhoons that develop in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and affect Asia.
Typhoon Saola is named for an elusive species of wild ox native to parts of Southeast Asia.
Forecasters say it’s hard to say exactly where — and if — the storm will make landfall. That’s partly because Haikui, a tropical storm hurtling further east, could affect its trajectory. Saola could also be affected by the annual summer monsoon, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, the meteorological agency for the Chinese territory.
The Philippine Meteorological Agency said Saola was likely to move parallel to the coast of southern China’s Guangdong province on Saturday, and a landfall in mainland China was possible on Sunday.
Either way, the agency said, the storm was expected to weaken as it moved through the South China Sea and become a tropical storm by Monday.
