Nicola Guttridge, contributor
(Image: NASA Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response Team)
The forecast for the weekend may look a little bleak where you are, but spare a thought for those in China. These two swirling typhoons, named Saola and Damrey, will hurtle to landfall on either side of Shanghai in the next couple of days, ending up near Taiwan and southern Japan respectively.
This image, captured yesterday at 0200 UTC by NASA's Terra satellite, shows Saola as a giant mature cyclone, dwarfing the smaller Damrey. Saola also has an eye, although in this image clouds obscure it from view. NASA satellites have been tracking the two storms, imaging them in the visible, infared and microwave parts of the spectrum.
Damrey will make tracks just north of Shanghai tomorrow before winding its way towards southern Japan, with Saola following suit on a more southerly route to Taiwan the day after. Warnings have been posted for eight cities and 11 counties in Taiwan, two provinces in the Phillippines and several nearby islands.
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Saola on 1 August at 0505 UTC and captured an infrared image of the storm. It showed strong, high, cold cloud tops of thunderstorms (purple) approaching Taiwan and stretched over the northern Philippines (Image: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen)
Saola's bulk is reflected in its super-fast wind speeds, which hit around 167 kilometres per hour, some 45 kilometres faster than Damrey's winds. Due to warm sea temperatures the bulky cyclone is going from strength to strength, and is thought likely to weaken only when it hits land tomorrow. In contrast, Damrey is expected to weaken by the end of today, when it travels through cooler areas of sea.
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