Tropical cyclone Vongfong has rapidly intensified into a super typhoon overnight and may continue to intensify further within the next 12 hours, growing as strong as super typhoon Haiyan and making it this year's strongest storm.
International weather agencies Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and United States' Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) has upgraded Vongfong to category four as it makes its way through the Pacific. Weather forecasters warned that the tropical cyclone may even become a category five storm on Wednesday.
Category four and category five storms, classified as super typhoons, have sustained winds of more than 150 mph (241 kph). According to a news report published by the Washington Post, records from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center showed that Vongfong has maximum winds of 155 mph Tuesday morning as its wind speeds ranged from 89 mph to 168 mph. It has gustiness of up to 190 mph (306 kph).
Super typhoon Vongfong has swelled to about 700 kilometers in diameter, but still smaller than super typhoon Yolanda's (international name "Haiyan") 800-kilometer diameter.
Washington Post also reported that Vongfong's central pressure is now a little less than 900 millibars -- an amount that has never been seen since super typhoon Haiyan which pummelled the Philippines last year, leaving thousands of people dead, injured and homeless. This pressure, weather agencies said, is even higher that one of this year's most intense storms, typhoon Genevieve.
However, even if it has that high intensity, Vongfong, the report said, is not expected to make landfall. Vongfong is forecast to move west northwest at a relatively slow pace of 9 kph toward southern Japan. Weather forecasters also noted that a high pressure area, an anticyclone system, located northeast of the typhoon, is blocking the path of Vongfong.
The typhoon is expected to weaken to category three by Saturday morning and to category two with wind speeds dropping to 105 mph as it heads toward Japan's Kagoshima Prefecture.
Vongfong, the fifth super typhoon to threaten the Pacific this year, has the same track as typhoon Phanfone which lashed southern Japan last week.
According to the Weather Channel, typhoon Phanfone left at least seven people dead, four missing, and 62 others injured. It has also caused power outages in thousands of homes and has grounded over a hundred flights.
The report also said that a member of the US Air Force was among the fatalities. His two companions, also both US airman, on the other hand, were missing after being washed away by high waves in Okinawa last Sunday.
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