Jacque Carthe

What an intimidating sight Fung-wong (UwanPH) has become over the Philippine Sea as her winds creep up to 65 mph (100 kph). The sprawling size of this budding West Pacific beast is creating an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, it’s causing Fung-wong to take longer to organize and thus delaying a potential round of rapid intensification (limiting how strong she can get before striking Luzon). But, on the other hand, her larger radius will affect more people in the Philippines and possibly generate a greater storm surge risk near the location of landfall. Even in this latter scenario, which seems to be increasingly more likely, Fung-wong could still explode to a high-end Category 4 Typhoon. Either way, it’s a serious situation we have developing here tonight.