The strongest tropical system the Earth has produced in almost a year is now churning in the Pacific Ocean on a track toward Japan.
Super Typhoon Vongfong’s exact strength may never be known. Yesterday, the best estimate pegged its winds at just over 178 miles (286 kilometers) per hour, according to the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Vongfong, which is forecast to lose strength before reaching Japan, is a Category 5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale used in the U.S. It’s the strongest system since Super Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines last November with winds estimated at the time at 190 to 195 mph.
The lack of clarity for Vongfong, Haiyan and Cyclone Hudhud, now off the coast of India, comes from not having anyone inside the storm measuring its power. That’s a regular procedure for storms in the Atlantic and off the Pacific coast of Mexico.