Malakas should veer safely east of the Japan mainland as a typhoon late thisweek.Malakas, which began early in the week as a tropical depression near theNorthern Mariana Islands, has been a strong tropical storm and even, briefly, atyphoon since Wednesday.
As of Thursday morning, EDT, Tropical Storm Malakas was centered about 900miles south of Tokyo. Plowing northward at nearly 15 mph, Malakas was packinghighest sustained winds of 70 mph.
Image Credit: Navy Research Lab MontereyNow, Malakas is set to churn through the Volcano and Bonin islands Thursday andThursday night before accelerating northeastward during the weekend.
On this forecast path, Malakas would track a few hundred miles east of Tokyoand thus would have a minimal impact on the eastern mainland of Japan.
Ultimate destination for Malakas will be the western Aleutian Islands of Alaskaand even southern Kamchatka, Russia.
Story by Jim Andrews, AccuWeather.com Senior Forecaster
