Super typhoon Nepartak — the name means “warrior” in Micronesian, according to ABC News — came ashore in Taiwan as equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, unleashing its fury as only a warrior can.
Slate is calling typhoon Nepartak a “once-in-a-generation storm, and it is beginning to live up to that description. The storm is huge. It was discovered by NASA on July 3, 2016, south of Guam. NASA followed the cyclone’s development using two important pieces of technology.
7-hour rainfall totals across #Taiwan. Pink shading indicates 6-12 inches (150-300 mm) of rain so far #Nepartak pic.twitter.com/zNpDzGzVh3
— Michael Lowry (@MichaelRLowry) July 7, 2016
NASA’s Terra satellite, the Suomi NPP satellite, and the RapidScat instruments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been analyzing the storm’s winds, temperature, rainfall sand cloud extent since its inception. NASA-JAXA’s Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core satellite is analyzing rainfall rates with the typhoon.
The storm quickly grew because the waters over which it trekked are about 2 degrees Celsius warmer than expected for this time of year, and the added heat provided fuel for Nepartak’s fury. On Thursday, the center of the storm passed directly over a Taiwanese weather buoy and the wind speeds produced were literally off the charts.
The Himawari-8 satellite shows Super Typhoon Nepartak churning through the Pacific Ocean. iOBt2wfCNP
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) July 6, 2016
Because of the tremendous size of the storm and Taiwan’s unique geography, forecasters are expecting some parts of the Island to receive as much as 1,330 millimeters (52 inches) of rainfall over the next day or two. Taiwan’s coastal mountains will actually enhance the amount of rainfall because they will force the tropical moisture upward, squeezing it into raindrops.
Storm surge is producing waves of up to 42 feet as the storm comes ashore, the winds tossing cars around like they were toys and rain bands bringing hard, almost nonstop rainfall. Officials are saying that through the night in Taiwan, we could be seeing a disaster in the making.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Taiwan can possibly expect the following: “A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.”
