West Pacific on alert for another developing tropical system

As what's left of Bavi, once a formidable typhoon, unravels over eastern China and Russia, AccuWeather forecasters will shift their attention to the Philippine Sea for additional tropical development into this weekend.

An area of low pressure that is currently meandering over the Philippine Sea is expected to gain tropical characteristics by the beginning of next week as it sits in an area of warm water and low wind shear.

Wind shear is the change of speed and direction of wind at different levels in the atmosphere, and it plays an important role in the development and longevity of tropical systems.

AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls expects this low to develop into a tropical depression by Friday or Saturday, local time.

He added that additional strengthening is expected through the end of the weekend as the storm begins to drift to the north-northwest. Conditions point to this tropical feature reaching typhoon intensity early next week as it reaches the Ryukyu Islands, he added.

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Conditions look favorable for this feature to reach typhoon intensity early next week as it should be nearing the Ryukyu Islands.

Minimal impacts are expected across the Philippines as the low is hundreds of miles away from the islands and is expected to remain largely stationary into the weekend.

As the low strengthens, rough seas are expected to develop across the region, and any shipping interests in the area should monitor this low's development into Monday.

While the system is expected to track to the north or northwest into the beginning of the week, there is still some uncertainty on the exact track of the system through early next week.

"Interests from eastern China to the Korean Peninsula and Japan should monitor for possible impacts around the middle of next week," warned Nicholls.

A bicyclist stops to view fallen trees from a typhoon on a main road in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. A typhoon damaged homes and other buildings, flooded roads and toppled utility poles on the Korean Peninsula before weakening to a tropical storm. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho)

Many of these areas were hit hard by heavy rain and damaging winds from Bavi this week. The most recent tropical system in the West Pacific basin strengthened into a typhoon on Monday and peaked in strength on Wednesday with winds equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins.

Reports of downed trees and power lines, damage to buildings, flooded roadways, travel delays and power outages were common across the Korean Peninsula as the storm moved through on Thursday.

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