Typhoon Podul Set to Strengthen Before Hitting Southern Taiwan

Typhoon Podul is expected to intensify as the system tracks toward southern Taiwan, bringing heavy rain and damaging wind gusts before making landfall on Wednesday.

The typhoon was 730 kilometers (454 miles) southeast of Taitung City, packing top sustained winds of 119 kilometers per hour, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration. The relatively compact system is set to strengthen and expand its wind field slightly as it moves toward land, the agency added.

Podul is forecast to cross the southeastern coast, but its exact path may become “erratic” prior to coming ashore as the system interacts with Taiwan’s mountains, according to the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

“Irregular track motion may occur immediately prior to landfall,” the center said in a bulletin on Monday. The country’s eastern coast is “known for track deflection” that has historically “resulted in unusual looping and curving of tropical cyclones approaching coastal Taiwan,” it said.

Warm sea surface temperatures will also lead to a strengthening of Podul to a peak intensity of 157 kilometers per hour, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane in the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, the center added.

Podul is then forecast to track across the island and re-emerge in the relatively cooler waters of the Taiwan Strait, which will weaken the system before it makes a second landfall on mainland China. The storm is set to bring heavy rains to parts of the country from Wednesday, including Fujian and Guangdong provinces, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

Photograph: A wave crashes on shore before Super Typhoon Kong-rey in Taitung, Taiwan, on Oct. 31, 2024 Photo credit: Annabelle Chih/Getty Images