Typhoon Rai is rapidly strengthening east of the southern Philippines and may be on the verge of becoming a super typhoon. The storm is on track to slam the southern and central portions of the country Thursday.
Rai currently has sustained winds of 215 kph , making it the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.Favorable conditions across the region, including very warm ocean waters and low wind shear, led to the storm strengthening from a tropical storm to a potentially catastrophic, high-end typhoon in the past 24 hours. Additional strengthening is expected, and the current forecast from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is for Rai to reach 260 kph at landfall.
said in its forecast bulletin early Thursday morning. More than 250 mm of rain will fall across portions of Mindanao and the Visayas. The intense rain is expected to cause widespread flooding, flash flooding, and landslides in higher terrain. has already issued Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal 3 for high winds in southern portions of the Visayas and northern Mindanao. As the storm nears landfall, Thursday afternoon locally,
may increase the warning signal to 4 or even 5 -- the top of their chart.In addition to the strong winds, flooding and landslides, coastal regions will be on alert for three to four meters of storms surge and shipping vessels will face extremely rough seas over the next several days.December storms are not uncommonIn the West Pacific, there is no defined"season" for tropical systems as there are in other basins like the North Atlantic .