Typhoon Linfa heading for the Taiwan Strait

The first typhoon of the year is heading for the southeast China coast and the island of Taiwan today. The slow moving category one storm could cause drenching rain and possible flooding. Right now the projected path calls for storm to pass through the Taiwan Strait which means both landmasses will get quite wet.

The light typhoon, with sustained winds of 83 kph, is expected to reach land on Sunday, lingering through Monday at an usually slow 10 kph, raising the risk of floods or mudslides.

The Central Weather Bureau has issued a typhoon warning for this severe tropical storm which has recently been upgraded to a category 1 typhoon.

The storm track was originally forcast to pass between Taiwan and the Phillipines, but overnight the storm has noved more northward, passing instead between the narrow strait. It appears that Vietnam and Hong Kong were not affected by Typhoon Linfa. Now that interaction with land is beginning on both sides of the storm, the forecasts are for Linfa to weaken back to a topical storm as it heads for southern Japan.