Typhoon Marwar Now Among Top 10 Strongest Storms Since 2000; 897 MB, 185 MPH Winds

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The most powerful storm system on Earth in more than two years, Super Typhoon Mawar, is raging through the Pacific, stirring up 70-foot waves amid 200 mph gusts as the atmospheric buzz saw cruises over warm ocean waters. The meteorological monstrosity could maintain Category 5-equivalent strength for days before weakening upon eventual approach to Taiwan.

The storm passed just north of Guam as a Category 4 on Wednesday, lashing the island with winds in the Category 2 range and flooding rains. Now it’s resurged to Category 5 force, and is among the top 10 strongest storms to occur globally since 2000.

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As of Friday morning Eastern time, Mawar had winds of 145 knots, or 165 mph. It was perfectly symmetrical on satellite, portending extreme fury surrounding an eerily calm and hollowed-out eye. Gravity waves, or undulations in the top of the cloud cover, can be seen propagating through Mawar’s overcast; that’s where the extreme upward motion of the eyewall has sent density ripples through the tropopause, or the “ceiling” of the lower atmosphere.

Since 1950, only eight typhoons in the West Pacific basin have attained Category 5 equivalent status during the month of May, with winds of 157 mph or greater. Mawar is the ninth. On Thursday night Eastern time, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center assessed Mawar’s maximum sustained eyewall winds at 160 knots, or 185 mph. Gusts were pegged at 215 mph. There exists only one other West Pacific typhoon in the National Weather Service’s database to become that strong during the month of May — Phyllis, which briefly nicked 185 mph intensity on May 29, 1958. In fact, no other storms worldwide have done that during the month of May.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/05/26/super-typhoon-hurricane-mawar/