We hope you haven't made plans to fly anywhere or take a train, or you know, go outside, this weekend.
As it spins ever closer to our shores, the Alaska-sized Typhoon Chan-hom is growing increasingly powerful.
Cyclone expert Jeff Masters is warning that Chan-hom could be the strongest storm to land within 200 miles of Shanghai in at least 35 years. (China’s deadliest storm in recent memory was Typhoon Nina, which killed 200,000 in 1975.)
Chan-hom is currently recording sustained winds of 140mph (225kph), meaning it is the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane and could intensify to Category 5 strength as it moves over the warm waters of the East China Sea.
Yikes.
This morning China's National Meteorological Center issued a red alert, the highest, for Chan-Hom. More than 10,000 people have been evacuated in coastal Zhejiang. The typhoon is expected to make landfall south of Shanghai somewhere in Zhejiang tomorrow, before continuing northwards towards... well, us.
This map shows the forecast for Chan-hom's center, so you'll probably want to stock up on peanut butter and fangbian mian now because who can say when the outer edges of this monster cyclone bring us serious rain and wind, but it could well begin tonight.
The heaviest rainfalls are forecast for between Saturday noon and Sunday afternoon, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.
The course of typhoons are notoriously difficult to predict – Typhoon Linfa defied forecasts to spare Hong Kong yesterday – but given the sheer enormity of Chan-hom, even if Shanghai escapes a direct hit, you can expect to get drenched this weekend.
And given how low lying Shanghai is, flooding is also a near certainty. Yay.
If you were hoping to skip town, you're probably too late. The Shanghai Railway Bureau has suspended high-speed trains running to several major destinations, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou and Xiamen.
And good luck trying to catch a flight out of Shanghai. Pudong and Hongqiao airports are still dealing with a backlog of cancellations after 100 flights were canceled yesterday due to Typhoon Linfa, reports Shanghai Daily.
This summer is expected to be packed with storms, with an even more powerful cyclone currently brewing farther east of Chan-hom. Typhoon Nangka hasn't yet been forecast to impact Shanghai, but we're definitely keeping an eye on it...
Typhoon Chan-hom is the big spiral in the middle of this image. Typhoon Linfa on the left petered out after hitting Guangdong yesterday. On the right is Typhoon Nangka, which has just been upgraded to a super typhoon. (Image: NOAA)
Typhoon Chan-hom has already wreaked havoc across East Asia as it blew past the Philippines, killing five people, and may have already claimed its first victim in Taiwan, where a man was swept away by huge waves.
The tropical cyclone buffeted the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako this morning, with recorded gusts of 145mph (234km/h), injuring at least 23 people and cutting off power for 42,000 homes, according to Channel News Asia.
Stay safe and dry, Shanghai. This one might be rough.
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