Typhoon Mawar was moving west over the Pacific Ocean toward the Philippines today, days after the tropical cyclone brought damaging winds and rain to Guam.
As of this morning in the Philippines, Mawar’s center was about 500 miles east of Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island, the Philippine meteorological agency said.
Because the country gives its own names to typhoons that enter its so-called area of responsibility, a large area of the Western North Pacific, the storm is known locally as Betty.
The storm was moving west at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a weather agency operated by the U.S. Navy. That wind speed is equivalent to the force of a strong Category 4 hurricane in the United States.
Forecasters said the storm most likely would stay north of the Philippines and start to weaken early this week.
But heavy rain, flooding, landslides and gale-force winds were expected in northern Luzon today or Monday, the Philippine weather agency said. Some areas of the country were also forecast to receive nearly 4 inches of rain by Tuesday morning.
As Mawar continues to head north, then northeast, the impact on Taiwan, China and South Korea could be minimal. Depending on the timing of other weather systems in the area, the storm could instead track farther west toward Taiwan or northwest toward Japan.