Super Typhoon 18W (Jelawat), # 6
Published: September 24, 2012
11:15 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, Japan time: Make up your mind, a’ready!
Jelawat re-strengthened into a super typhoon on Monday evening, and the latest Joint Typhoon Warning Center projection forecasts Jelawat to make a sharp right turn overnight Friday into Saturday and set its sights right on Okinawa, to the tune of 161 miles southwest of the island at 9 p.m. Saturday but making a beeline toward it. As my idol Capt. “Stormy” Weathers at Fleet Activities Okinawa would say, “Typhoon Bouncy House” or “Typhoon Doughnuts,” etc.
Jelawat is forecast to peak in intensity at 155-mph sustained winds and 190-mph gusts as it creeps slowly northward , the center east of the Philippines but the western quadrants really letting that island group have it.
As it approaches Okinawa, Jelawat will still be a powerful Category 2-equivalent storm, packing sustained 110-mph winds and 127-mph gusts at 9 p.m. Saturday.
Yep, another weekend. Yep, another storm taking virtually the same routes as Bolaven and Sanba did. We probably won’t see accelerated tropical cyclone conditions of readiness for another three days or so, but no time like now to restock the cabinets that got emptied during Sanba
