The strongest storm of the year weakened slightly on Thursday as it barrelled towards the Philippines, Taiwan, and China.
Super Typhoon Champi is now the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of nearly 185mph, according to the US National Weather Service.
The typhoon was moving west-northwest across the Philippine Sea with sustained winds of 175mph on Wednesday evening.
It was expected to lose strength after turning northwest through Thursday but still remain “extremely powerful”, with typhoon-force winds extending up to 100 miles (160km) from its centre.
Champi developed into a tropical storm last week before rapidly strengthening to the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane in less than 48 hours.
It swept northwest across the Pacific Ocean, passing within 10 miles (16km) of the US territory of Guam on Saturday.
The storm first attained the intensity of a Category 5 hurricane on 17 October, about six hours after passing Guam, with sustained winds of around 165mph. It subsequently weakened before regaining Category 5 intensity the following day. Now, it’s at the same intensity for the third time.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration issued a sea and land warning as Champi was expected to hit the island the hardest, on Friday and Saturday.
The storm is currently almost 250km southeast of Taiwan's northeastern county of Yilan, the CWA said. Its track shows it passing northeastern Taiwan, turning north towards the Chinese coast and eventually moving into southern Japan.
The warnings are expected to be lifted on Saturday afternoon after the storm is projected to move away from Taiwan and towards Japan’s Kyushu island, according to forecaster Chang cheng-Chuan.
Airlines cancelled nearly 125 flights for Thursday, the transport ministry said, but the rail network was so far unaffected. The interior ministry said no area had been evacuated yet.
Authorities suspended ferry services and closed many tourist attractions as they stepped up disaster preparations. They also deployed additional water pumps in flood-prone areas and ordered checks of drainage systems and flood-control equipment.
President Lai Ching-te called for the public to get ready for the typhoon without delay and avoid going to the mountains or the coast.
In eastern China, authorities are planning evacuations and urging residents in the path of the typhoon to prepare.
Although the Philippines and Taiwan did not predict a landfall, China’s National Meteorological Centre said Champi was expected to make landfall on the eastern coast of Taiwan around Saturday and again in the Chinese province of Fujian as a severe tropical storm.
The forecaster issued a blue typhoon warning for Champi, the lowest level in China’s four-tier system. But local authorities still drew up emergency evacuation plans for vulnerable communities in eastern Zhejiang province.
Champi was named Super Typhoon Rosal in the Philippines, becoming the Southeast Asian country’s 18th tropical cyclone of 2026.
The Philippine weather agency PAGASA said on Thursday the storm's centre was around 400km east of Basco, Batanes, in the northern Philippines.
It issued a warning for waves rising up to 12m along the northern and eastern coasts of Batanes and 9m around the Babuyan Islands.
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