Typhoon Krathon intensified into a severe typhoon in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and continued to strengthen as it hovered south of Taiwan’s second-largest city, poised to strike the heavily-populated southwest coast tomorrow, according to weather bureau forecasts.
According to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, at 6:00 am, Krathon was located at latitude 20.7 degrees north, longitude 119.8 east, around 180 kilometers southwest of Point Eluanbi.
After reaching the level of strong typhoon at 2:00 am this morning, the storm continued to intensify as it hovered over the South China Sea. The storm circle covered the Hengchun Peninsula, Pingtung County, Taitung County, and Kaohsiung City, and posed a threat to areas south of Chiayi City, according to a typhoon warning issued by the CWA.
At a press briefing this morning, CWA director, Wu Wanhua, said the radius of Beaufort Scale category 7 winds was 220 kilometers wide, and the radius of category 10 winds had expanded from 70 to 80 kilometers wide. Winds near the center of the typhoon have reached 53 meters per second (191 kilometers per hour).
Wu said that the typhoon had barely moved from late last night to early this morning, but is expected to turn northward later today, and make landfall Wednesday, or early Thursday.
Meteorologists pointed out that if Typhoon Krathon follows the predicted path, hitting the southwest coast and exiting via the east coast at Hualien or Yilan, it will make several historic firsts. It will be the first time in recorded history that a severe typhoon has hit the west coast, and the first time in history that a typhoon has traversed the island from west to east.
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