Super Typhoon Soudelor headed for Taiwan

[pscot]

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3061

Super Typhoon Soudelor vaulted to Category 5 status on Monday, making it the planet's sixth (at least--see below) Category 5 storm of the year. At 2:00 pm EDT Monday, Soudelor’s sustained winds were estimated at 180 mph, with the strength unchanged in the 8:00 pm EDT Monday update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). For the year thus far, Soudelor is Earth’s strongest tropical cyclone in terms of estimated wind speed. The Weather Channel’s Nick Wiltgen notes that Soudelor’s estimated central pressure of 900 mb is the lowest in a typhoon since last year’s Super Typhoon Vongfong, also 900 mb. Five prior Category 5 storms this year were described and illustrated in a May 19 post. They include Tropical Cyclone Eunice, Cyclone Pam, Super Typhoon Maysak, and Super Typhoon Noul. Update: Our initial survey of JTWC products showed that Cyclone Bansi fell short of Category 5 status. However, JTWC data for Cyclone Bansi archived by RAMMB-CIRA indicate that Bansi's estimated winds peaked at 140 knots (about 160 mph) at 0000 GMT on January 13. If we include Bansi, then we're now up to a startling seven Category 5 storms so far in 2015. This compares to a yearly average of 4.6 Category 5 storms for the period 1990-2014. It's not out of the question we could break the record total of 12 Category 5 storms notched in 1997, when--much like this year--a strong El Niño was ramping up