MIAMI – February is not a time we in the Northern Hemisphere often worry much about tropical cyclones, but while the Atlantic remains sound asleep, the Western Pacific is raging with record-breaking Super Typhoon Wutip.
Wutip became the strongest ever typhoon for the month of February on Monday morning. The storm’s sustained wind speeds maxed out at 160 mph, equivalent in strength to a Category 5 hurricane (hurricanes and typhoons are both tropical cyclones, they just have different names based on which ocean basin they are located.)
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Thankfully, the storm’s violent core missed Guam, but it did drop up to 17” of rain and bring gusts of up to 66 mph to the island as its outer bands lashed the island. It now is on a general track toward the Philippines, but the storm is expected to quickly weaken.
Just a reminder… Atlantic Hurricane Season begins on June 1.