Powerful Category 4 Typhoon Ma-on is headed westward over the West PacificOcean, but is expected to encounter a trough of low pressure that will recurvethe storm to the north and northeast, bringing it very close to the coast ofJapan early next week.Recent model trends and the current thinking in the office is that the typhoonwill be slower than expected to recurve to the northeast, making it an evengreater threat to Japan.
If the typhoon happens to strengthen a bit more, which is a distinctpossibility, it will become a super typhoon. Ma-on is expected to weaken somebefore or as it gets closer to Japan as it will encounter some cooler watertemperatures and an increase in the amount of wind shear. However, anyone withany interests in the island nation should follow the path of this destructiveand likely to become deadly typhoon.
Story by Mark Paquette, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist
