of the triad of storms in the westpac, two have approached or crossed land (bopha crossed taiwan as a t.s., maria grazed southeastern japan as a t.s.)... and the third has become a very dangerous super typhoon that is heading for the central china coast.
saomai is rated a 140kt, 898mb system right now, the lower rung of category 5 status. it is unlikely to maintain this extreme intensity all the way to the coast.. but should hit at least at category 3 status. this is south of, but in the same general area that an earlier tropical storm caused severe flooding and killed several hundred people. the chinese are fairly good at making their people do what they want, so i'd expect them to do a good job evacuating the threatened population. hope the human toll is low.
HF 1624z09august