Ameteorologist has pointed out the sheer size of Typhoon Kong-rey’s eye as the massive storm approached Taiwan on Wednesday.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Typhoon Kong-rey had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the website Zoom Earth. The storm has weakened slightly since Tuesday night, when it was categorized as a super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. Forecasts anticipate that Typhoon Kong-rey will weaken further by the time it makes landfall in Kaohsiung in the early morning hours on Thursday.
On Tuesday night, meteorologist Noah Bergren of TV station WOFL in Orlando, Florida, commented on the size of the storm’s eye.
“Super Typhoon Kong-rey is easily one of the largest eye’s in a major tropical system you will ever see on Earth,” Bergren posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Thing is absolutely massive.”
A wave crashes outside of Fugang Harbor in Taitung, Taiwan, ahead of Typhoon Kong-rey on Wednesday. The storm is expected to make landfall in Taiwan early Thursday morning. Annabelle Chih/Getty
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert told Newsweek that having a large eye doesn’t necessarily imply anything about the storm’s strength.
“It just means the winds with it are farther away from the center than if it was a smaller eye,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily have any major defining characteristic of the storm.”
Reppert added that a stronger storm that’s been around longer usually has a wider eye than a newer storm.
Most spaghetti models—or computer models illustrating potential storm paths—show Kong-rey making landfall on Taiwan’s southeast coast and cutting across the island before emerging with maximum sustained winds of around 75 mph. Models indicate that the typhoon will exhibit a northeastern turn away from China, which will take it out to the East China Sea.
Kong-rey’s strength is uncharacteristic for this time of year, The New York Times reported, adding that the typhoon is expected to make landfall equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.
Reppert warned that strong winds up to 140 mph with higher gusts could hit southern Taiwan, though the storm is expected to weaken as it moves over the island. An AccuWeather report warned of “significant structural damage, mudslides and landslides” from the storm, as up to 3 feet of rain is expected to lash Taiwan. The storm could either maintain its intensity or strengthen before it makes landfall early Thursday.
Eastern China and Japan also are expecting heavy rain as the storm progresses.
A typhoon is classified as a severe tropical cyclone occurring in the Northwest Pacific. A hurricane is the term for the same type of storm in the Northeast Pacific and Northern Atlantic. Outside of these regions, the storms are called tropical cyclones.
Australia’s adopted popstar son Leo Sayer reflects on his career
“I look at my role as being a friend of Canberra Hospital, I can bring some pleasure and happiness sometimes to people who are really in difficult times in their lives.”
With backing music from a Bluetooth speaker, Sayer croons his way around the cancer wards, making a human connection with everyone he comes across.
Canberra Region Cancer Centre Operations Manager Caroline McIntyre says Sayer’s visits are typically kept a surprise for patients and staff.
“He’s always come in so discreetly,” she says.
“Normally it’s just very quiet, he comes up in the back lift and says hello to literally everybody.
“Some of them are doing it tough, and to have a little bit of joy and light – it really gives them a lift.
“What makes me happy is to see people getting chemo on their feet dancing.”
Jamming with Jimi Hendrix, Countdown and the Troubadour
Originally a graphic designer by trade, English-born Leo Sayer rose to pop prominence in London in the late 1960s, as a singer-songwriter – and was soon adopted by Australia as an honorary son after his first tour here in 1974.
He went on to become an Australian citizen in 2009.
Sayer was a regular on ABC TV’s Countdown during the 70s and 80s, performing chart-toppers like “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, “When I Need You”, “More Than I Could Say” and “Orchard Road”.
He blushingly admits they were wild days – when he didn’t always live up to his “good-guy” public persona.
“It was mad, I mean, Top of the Pops in England, Countdown over here,” he says.
“You were mobbed by the fans, I remember being dragged out of a limousine the first tour that I came here, and then speaking to crazy people like Molly Meldrum on TV and trying to sort of like take it all in.”
It seems hard to believe – the petite, well-spoken singer, with a mane of curly hair that inspired changing his name from Gerard to Leo – beating off mobs of screaming fangirls.
Sayer circulated in superstar company, becoming close friends with former Beatles George Harrison and Paul McCartney, collaborating with Roger Daltrey of The Who, and even sharing a sly cigarette or two with John Lennon and Yoko Ono who had a flat above his design studio.
“I met Jimi Hendrix right at the start of his career. I actually jammed with him, playing the harmonica, and him playing the guitar,” he says.
Recalling his 1975 opening night at the famous Troubadour Club in Los Angeles, he looked up to see an intimidating line-up of fans in the front row.
“It was David Bowie, Elton John, and ‘The Fonz’ [Henry Winkler].”
Alongside them: John Cleese, Mick Jagger, Bernie Taupin, and comedian Marty Feldman.
“We never thought it would last, we were adapting to things around us, writing songs about things that are around us,” he says.
“And we thought they were only for our generation — so the amazing thing is my music’s become like a fine wine, where you lay it down and years later, it becomes a collector’s item.
“We’re in an age where the music that I make, young kids are actually latching onto it now, and they’re finding that that generation and that style of music we made is as current now as anything.”
Sayer’s health battles, still spreading hope at 76
Leo Sayer says his hospital charity work caps off a career dedicated to providing joy through music.
“It’s a nice piece of synchronicity really, because I was born in the grounds of a hospital in Shoreham by Sea in Sussex, near Brighton in England,” Mr Sayer said.
“I suppose I’ve always felt comfortable in hospitals and being around hospitals.
“Growing up, my dad was a hospital engineer, Mum was a nurse, my sister was a matron.”
Sayer has health struggles of his own, including three stents in his heart, which help him have a genuine connection to the hospital patients he entertains.
“[My music] is providing something that isn’t taking away from any of the treatment that’s going on. It’s providing something that’s just putting a smile on peoples’ faces.
“Music is communication and that’s what this is all about, we’re communicating, we’re making people feel better.
“We’re not healing people with music, but we are making them feel better about their healing.
“To sell out Canberra Hospital will do me fine.”
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