Taiwan issues warnings as Typhoon Champi nears

A powerful typhoon headed towards Taiwan on Thursday, triggering the cancellation of dozens of flights and prompting warnings for locals to prepare for heavy rain, strong winds and giant waves.

Typhoon Champi is expected to sweep past Taiwan’s northeast coast on Friday and Saturday as it moves towards China and Japan, Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.

Champi has maximum sustained wind speeds of nearly 195 kilometres (121 miles) per hour, according to the latest update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

It was previously classed as a super typhoon, with reported maximum speeds of nearly 300 kph, but has since weakened.

“Everyone is urged to remain vigilant and be prepared for the strong winds and heavy rains brought by the typhoon,” Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a Facebook post.

Champi is the latest in a busy Pacific storm season turbo-charged by the El Nino weather phenomenon that has caused unprecedented warming in the equatorial Pacific.

The storm is expected to dump up to 900 millimetres (35 inches) of rain in the mountainous regions of northern and northeastern Taiwan from Thursday to Saturday, and whip up waves more than six metres (20 feet) tall.

Work and classes on Friday have been cancelled in many cities and counties across the island.

More than 23,000 military personnel are on standby to help with rescue efforts. Over 150 domestic and international flights were cancelled for Thursday ahead of the storm.

“Typhoon Champi is expected to have its most significant impact starting all day tomorrow through the first half of Saturday,” CWA forecaster Jason Cheng told AFP.

“Currently, the typhoon has a storm radius of 320 kilometres… Compared to the previous Typhoon Bavi, Champi’s storm area is not as vast,” Cheng said.

Millions of people in eastern China also prepared for torrential downpours and flash flooding in the coming days.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources initiated a level-four emergency response on Thursday for flooding in Shanghai and the coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian.

Level four is the lowest in China’s emergency response hierarchy.

The ministry warned that Champi could bring “a period of significant rainfall” from Friday to Sunday, with “heavy to torrential downpours” expected in some areas, including “most of Shanghai and eastern Zhejiang”.

Japan’s two major airlines cancelled more than 110 flights from Thursday to Saturday.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the El Nino system gripping the planet is heading off the charts, and that countries should take urgent action to prepare for the worst.

El Nino is expected to peak in December, but the human impact is set to last into 2027 and beyond.

The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Nino temporarily raises sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific, triggering changes in weather that can increase the risk of drought and flooding, and exacerbate human-caused global warming.