WunderPhotos®

Typhoon Fanapi shows strong convection with a tight center of circulation around a clouded eye as the storm’s leading northwestern rain bands drench the islands of the Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on September 17, 2010 as it passed overhead. At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EDT) on that date, the storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 98 mph (157 km/hr). It was centered about 414 miles (666 kilometers) east-southeast of Taipei, Taiwan. High seas of up to 22 feet (6.7 meters) were reported. At the time of this image was taken, the cloud top temperatures measured at -60 F. The typhoon strengthened throughout the day, and became a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale in the evening of September 17, 2010. That evening, Fanapi had an 11 mile-wide eye, with a small gap in the eyewall in the northern part of the circulation. Because of increasing vertical wind shear, Fanapi is predicted to weaken within the next 12-24 hours and make landfall on Taiwan on September 19 during the morning hours local Asia/Taipei time.