Super Typhoon Nepartak is poised to become a Category 5 storm

Andrew Freedman
Updated
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UPDATE: July 6, 2016, 11:55 a.m. AEST The Joint Typhoon Warning Center has upgraded Super Typhoon Nepartak to Category 5 status with 160 mile per hour winds.

Super Typhoon Nepartak has exploded in intensity in the western Pacific Ocean, becoming the strongest tropical cyclone in that ocean basin so far this year. In fact, it is the first Category 5 of the season in the northern hemisphere.

Nepartak is forecast to strengthen further, reaching Category 5 super typhoon status within the next 24 hours, before weakening slightly, back to a Category 4 storm, as it nears Taiwan on July 7. As of Tuesday afternoon, the storm had peak sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, which puts it at the brink of Category 5 intensity.

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Super Typhoon Nepartak is located about 950 miles southeast of Taipei and was moving west-northwestward at 21 miles per hour. This general movement is forecast to continue during the next few days. 

The latest forecast from the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) shows the center of the storm passing near or directly over the bustling city of Taipei on July 7 at Category 4 intensity. This could cause significant damage from the storm's strong winds and storm surge.

However, it's also possible the storm's strongest winds and heaviest rains will stay offshore of Taiwan, as the storm system begins curving more to the north into mainland China. 

Shanghai will also be threatened by this system, but Nepartak is not expected to hit there at a high intensity.

Image: Joint Typhoon Warning Center

Typhoon Nepartak has already set a record, simply by forming. It ended a record storm drought in the northwest Pacific Ocean, according to Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University. 

It has been 200 days since the last typhoon had been spinning in that region, breaking the previous storm-free stretch of 198 days. 

Stay tuned to Mashable for further updates as this storm approaches Taiwan and China.

Update: This post has been corrected to indicate that there have been other Category 5 storms previously in 2016, but that this is the first of the season in the northern hemisphere.