Super Typhoon Champi has become the strongest tropical cyclone anywhere in the world so far in 2026 by wind speed, and Taiwan is now preparing its first warnings as the storm turns toward the waters east of the island.
Source: IB Times Singapore
The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), in its warning issued at 03:00 UTC on Wednesday, put Champi's one-minute sustained winds at 155 knots — about 287 km/h — with gusts to 190 knots and a central pressure of 902 millibars, at a position about 520 nautical miles south-southeast of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. The Japan Meteorological Agency rated the storm "violent", with a central pressure of 900 hPa. Champi's peak winds of about 296 km/h surpassed this year's previous wind-speed record, held by Hurricane Polo at 285 km/h, although Polo's central pressure of 892 millibars was lower.
Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) placed the storm about 1,050 km east-southeast of Cape Eluanbi, the island's southern tip, at 8 a.m. Taiwan time on Wednesday, moving west-northwest. The CWA said a sea warning could be issued late on Wednesday or early on Thursday, with a possible land warning on Thursday afternoon or evening, and that the track had shifted slightly westward but remained uncertain, the Taipei Times reported.
Greatest impact Friday–Saturday (23–24 October): heavy to extremely heavy rain in northern Taiwan, Yilan, Hualien and mountainous central areas; waves up to 6 metres off the east coast, Lanyu and Green Island. AccuWeather forecasts 450–900 mm of rain for eastern Taiwan between 22 and 24 October. The storm is expected to move away toward Japan on Sunday.
Champi has already brushed populated land once: it passed about 19 km from Guam on 18 October, where AccuWeather reported damaged homes, power and water outages and more than 1,000 people in shelters, with no deaths reported. In the Philippines, where the storm is locally named Rosal, Signal No. 2 remains raised over Batanes.
Forecasters stress that Champi's exact track over the next two days will decide how hard Taiwan is hit, and residents in the north and east have been urged to follow CWA advisories as the warnings are issued. Read the earlier report: Signal No. 2 raised over Batanes
Sources: JTWC and JMA data via Orbis Weather's daily storm report (21 October 2026); Taiwan Central Weather Administration via the Taipei Times; IB Times Singapore; AccuWeather via Orbis Weather.