Super Typhoon Champi: Guam's near miss and the storm's path toward Okinawa

Super Typhoon Champi came within about 10 miles of Guam over the weekend and is now heading toward southern Japan. Searches for the storm passed 20,000 in the US, according to Google Trends, with “typhoon Champi path” and “Guam” among the related queries. Guam is a US territory, which is part of why the storm registered with American searchers.

Guam’s close call

Champi’s eye passed about 10 miles south of Guam’s southern tip at 4:26 a.m. local time on Sunday, Oct. 18, the National Weather Service told The Guam Daily Post. The storm was upgraded to a super typhoon around the time of closest approach, with sustained winds of 150 mph, the high end of Category 4.

“It’s really hard to underscore how close this was to being a significant and devastating event for portions of Guam,” NWS science and operations officer Brandon Aydlett said, explaining that the storm’s tightly packed wind field dropped off quickly away from the roughly 5-mile-wide eye.

Most of the island got tropical-storm-force winds with typhoon-force gusts instead of a direct hit, according to the Post. Airport gusts reached 80 to 85 mph, and the NWS counted 1 to 3 inches of rain by midday Sunday. Preliminary reports showed “no widespread significant damage,” Aydlett said, though far southern Guam, nearest the eye, still had to be assessed at that point.

Recovery on Guam

Guam’s Joint Information Center urged residents to remain indoors until conditions improved. Recovery reporting from the Guam Daily Post later in the week said power and water service were nearly restored; we didn’t independently confirm the exact figures.

Typhoon Champi’s path: Okinawa next

Champi is now tracking northwest toward Japan, where it is the country’s 30th named storm of the year, The Japan Times reported. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecast on Wednesday, Oct. 21, that it will reach Okinawa’s Sakishima Islands between Friday and Saturday, then move toward western Japan and affect parts of Kyushu from the weekend.

The JMA has classified Champi as a super typhoon, the top of its five-level scale, with maximum winds of up to 216 kph (about 134 mph), according to The Japan Times. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have canceled some flights to and from southern Japan, and the 50th Okinawa Industrial Festival has been called off.

Forecast tracks can shift. Anyone with travel to Okinawa or southern Japan should follow the JMA and their airline for updates.

FAQ

Did Super Typhoon Champi hit Guam? Not directly. The eye passed about 10 miles south of the island on Oct. 18.

How strong is Champi? It reached 150 mph sustained winds near Guam, per the NWS; Japan’s JMA classifies it as a super typhoon.

Where is it going? Toward Okinawa’s Sakishima Islands late this week, then western Japan, according to the JMA.