Satellite images from the last few hours show a large and very well-organized tropical system over the western Pacific. Meteorologists from Micronesia named it Sinlaku after the mythological goddess of nature.
During the weekend, it underwent extremely rapid intensification and became a category five super typhoon. The conditions were extremely favorable – the wind shear is very low and the sea surface temperature reaches values of up to 3 °C above the long-term average.
According to the Severe Weather Europe server, the system probably reached its peak on Monday morning local time. The central pressure dropped below 890 hPa and the wind speed could reach up to 300 km/h. The weakening will only be gradual, and therefore it is likely that it will still arrive over the mainland as a very strong typhoon.
The Northern Mariana Islands are threatened with a devastating impact
The Northern Mariana Islands and Guam (USA) lie in the path of the system. The islands of Saipan and Tinian, with approximately 45,000 inhabitants, are most at risk, and may be directly affected. The most populous island of Guam will probably avoid the worst impacts, but strong winds and heavy rainfall will also be felt here.
The Northern Mariana Islands are at risk of extreme wind gusts of up to almost 300 km/h, torrential rainfall totals of around 500 mm and waves exceeding 10 meters. If the system retains the fifth category, the effects can be catastrophic, including threats to human lives, extensive destruction of buildings and long-term power outages.
Photo: Windy
Rainfall totals and maximum wind gusts in the Northern Mariana Islands from Monday to Thursday according to the ECMWF model
The Marian region lies in the so-called typhoon lane, where strong tropical cyclones occur quite often. For example, supertyphoon Karen in 1962 destroyed approximately 95 percent of the houses on Guam and led to a fundamental tightening of building standards.
Sinlaku is also extraordinary from a historical point of view. It is the strongest tropical cyclone this year and at the same time the most intense typhoon that has formed in the Pacific so early in the season. It was significantly surpassed in April only by typhoon Surigae in 2021, but it was created only in the second half of the month.
Sinlaku is this year’s second Category 5 system in the world, the first was Cyclone Horacio in the Indian Ocean. The number of such extremely strong storms has been increasing in recent years, among other things, in connection with the warming of the oceans.
