Super typhoon Megi, a powerful storm originating from the West Pacific, has dragged in the northeast monsoon along the coastal areas of China, according to a post by the Hong Kong Observatory.
Measuring up to Category-5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale in terms of storm intensity, Megi weakened to typhoon status on Monday after encountering the ‘mountain spine' in the Northern Philippines.
STRONGEST POST-2005
Megi has brought forth winds with speeds of up to 269 km/hr with gusts up to 324 km/hr, according to Philippine authorities.
Those wind speeds make it the most powerful storm to appear worldwide since 2005 after Hurricane Wilma and Hurricane Katrina.
Megi is also the strongest storm to hit the Northwest Pacific region in the past 20 years.
The storm is forecast to re-intensify after entering the South China Sea and possibly regain super typhoon strength, according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
LIKELY LANDFALL
Megi could be aiming to hit the Southwest China coast and the larger Indo-China region over the next few days, according to ECMWF.
But along the way, the storm has already left a trail of massive destruction as it brought accompanying high winds to bear down on the Philippines, Taiwan and adjoining Southeast China coast.
The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre and the London-based Tropical Storm Group tend to believe that Megi might choose to cut its path short over the South China Sea and power its way into the Southern China coast, west of Hong Kong.
REMNANT FOR BAY
Meteorological experts have set up a watch for a remnant circulation from Megi to meander its way further west into the Bay of Bengal.
The farther to the west (and closer to Bay of Bengal) its ultimate location for landfall, the better endowed the remnant circulation would be. Meanwhile, a remnant low-pressure area from the deep depression that stalked the Bay had moved west-southwest over Interior Peninsula after crossing the Orissa coast, which was traced to over Marathwada on Monday.
WIDESPReAD RAIN
An India Meteorological Department (IMD) update on the same evening said that widespread rainfall was reported from Konkan, Goa, Madhya Maharashtra and Coastal Karnataka during the 24 hours ending in the morning.
It was fairly widespread over Vidarbha, Marathwada, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, North Andhra Pradesh, North Interior Karnataka, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands and scattered over Bihar, Jharkhand and the Northeastern States.
An afternoon satellite showed the presence of convective (rain-producing) clouds over parts of Andhra Pradesh, East-central Arabian Sea, East Bay of Bengal and North Andaman Sea.
An IMD satellite derivative product showed negative values for outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR), a proxy for cloudiness, over the Mumbai-Konkan, West Maharashtra and adjoining North and North Interior Karnataka and Telangana.
Negative OLR values were also available for extreme South Peninsula.
A weather warning valid for Tuesday said that isolated heavy rainfall would occur over Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Konkan, Goa and North Interior Karnataka.
An IMD outlook valid until Thursday said that widespread rain or thundershowers would occur over Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Konkan and Goa during the next two days.
There would be fairly widespread over the Northeastern States, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Coastal and North Interior Karnataka, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Scattered rain or thundershowers would occur over East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as a feeble western disturbance marches its way across. Rainfall activity may increase over Bihar, going forward.
Extended forecast valid until Saturday said that fairly widespread rainfall would occur over the Western Himalayas, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Central and East India and along the West Coast of India as also the Northeastern States.
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