Typhoon Mekkhala weakened on Tuesday as it moved toward the southern Ryukyu Islands.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Typhoon Mekkhala was located at latitude 21.3\u00b0N and longitude 124.7\u00b0E which put the center about 235 miles (380 km) south of Miyakojima, Japan.\u00a0 Mekkhala was moving toward the north at 9 m.p.h. (15 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 85 m.p.h. (135 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 105 m.p.h. (165 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 974 mb.<\/p>\n
Typhoon Mekkhala weakened on Tuesday.\u00a0 An upper level ridge over China produced northeasterly winds that blew toward the top of Mekkhala’s circulation.\u00a0 Those winds caused strong vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The strong vertical wind shear caused Typhoon Mekkhala to weaken.<\/p>\n
The northeasterly winds in the upper levels also blew the tops off of many of the thunderstorms in the northern half of Typhoon Mekkhala.\u00a0 Thunderstorms were still occurring in bands in the southern half of Mekkhala’s circulation.\u00a0 Bands in the northern half of Typhoon Mekkhala consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Mekkhala generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away to the south and west of the typhoon.\u00a0 However, the removal of mass in the upper levels was less than the convergence of mass in the lower levels of the atmosphere.\u00a0 So, the surface pressure increased on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Even though Typhoon Mekkhala weakened on Tuesday, the size of Mekkhala’s circulation did not change much.\u00a0 Winds to typhoon force extended out 65 miles (105 km) from the center of Typhoon Mekkhala.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 140 miles (225 km) from the center of Mekkhala’s circulation.<\/p>\n
Typhoon Mekkhala will move through an environment that will be unfavorable for intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Mekkhala will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 28\u00b0C.\u00a0 However, the upper level ridge over China will continue to cause strong vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Typhoon Mekkhala will continue to weaken during the next 24 hours because of the strong vertical wind shear.<\/p>\n
Typhoon Mekkhala will move around the western end of a high pressure system over the Western North Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Mekkhala toward the north during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Typhoon Mekkhala will reach the southern Ryukyu Islands in less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Typhoon Mekkhala will bring strong winds and locally heavy rain to the southern Ryukyu Islands including Ishigakijima and Miyakojima.\u00a0 Heavy rain could cause flash floods in some locations.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere over the Western North Pacific Ocean, former Tropical Storm Higos weakened to a tropical depression as it moved west of the Marianas.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Tropical Depression Higos was located at latitude 15.4\u00b0N and longitude 141.3\u00b0E which put the center about 225 miles (360 km) west-northwest of Guam.\u00a0 Higos was moving toward the west-northwest at 11 m.p.h. (17 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 35 m.p.h. (55 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 45 m.p.h. (75 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 1002 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Typhoon Mekkhala weakened on Tuesday as it moved toward the southern Ryukyu Islands.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Typhoon Mekkhala was located at latitude 21.3\u00b0N and longitude 124.7\u00b0E which put the center about 235 miles (380 km) south of Miyakojima, Japan.\u00a0 Mekkhala was moving toward the north at 9 m.p.h. (15 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[453,739,45,2146,1581,44,136,2130,2988,194,4169,2129,454,740],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24585,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24584\/revisions\/24585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}