WATCH THE INCREDIBLE EVOLUTION OF TYPHOON NEPARTAK! (credit: Severe Weather Europe via Digital Typhoon)

DISCUSSION: Super typhoon Nepartak’s evolution across central portions in the Western Pacific Ocean is a testament to the incredibly rapid changes that can occur in association with rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones in that part of the world. In the video below which captured the evolution of the cyclone by the Himawari-8 Satellite, note how the formation of the tropical storm began on July 2nd as a cluster of thunderstorms. By July 3rd , this intensifying tropical cyclone rapidly evolved a visually evident low level circulation 20 seconds into the video.  On the 4th of July, the disturbance quickly strengthened which was visually identified by an explosion of deep convective clouds around the center at around 40 seconds. Soon after that time, maximum sustained winds close to the low level circulation center neared 90 km/h, upgrading the storm’s classification to a strong tropical cyclone. By the 5th of July, the storm’s maximum sustained winds increased sufficiently such that it became designated a typhoon with a distinct eye. From there, the tropical cyclone continued to strengthen and was upgraded to a severe typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h. At 1:25 in the video, you can clearly identify spiral rain bands as well as gravity waves radiating outward from the center of the severe typhoon. Nepartak continued to intensify in strength and ultimately reached super typhoon with 230 km/h maximum sustained winds near its center by July 6th at around 1:35. Though, not shown in the video, the super typhoon made landfall in Taiwan on July 8th, where it began to weaken and has since become a remnant low pressure area in Jiangxi, China.  To learn more about other high-impact weather events from across the Western Pacific Ocean, be sure to click here!

@Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz