Khanun setting its sights for Hainan

Good evening from the Western Pacific Weather team.

Tropical Storm Khanun (Odette) is making its way out of the Philippines, though the system continues to influence the weather pattern for the country. While the rainfall has significantly decreased for Luzon, a return flow is bringing rain into Cebu and the surrounding islands. The winds will continue to be in place for the overnight period but will decrease toward Saturday.

Once the system completely exits the Philippines, those in Hainan and the southern coast of China will need to be prepared for Khanun’s approach by the end of the weekend. The system will continue to move north and west on Sunday and potentially intensify into a strong typhoon Sunday, though the latest thinking is that the system will encounter some resistance and struggle to maintain its strength into the first part of next week. Hainan should see deteriorating conditions come Monday.

Those in northern Vietnam will have to be on the lookout for this system as a previous storm brought significant amount of rain, leading to at least 37 deaths with thousands of homes evacuated due to the flooding and mudslides. Khanun, even in a weakened state, could still threaten to cause more flooding and problems next week.

Jonathan Oh
Meteorologist, Western Pacific Weather