After battering the Mariana Islands with flooding and damaging winds, Goni, the fifteenth typhoon of the year, remains a powerful typhoon as it tracks westward over the open Pacific Ocean with Taiwan and northern Luzon being the next targets.
Typhoon Goni is projected to potentially make landfall near the northern Philippines or Taiwan at the end of this week, though there is still some uncertainty about where and when it could hit.
Strong winds are expected in Taiwan Strait from Friday afternoon, and coastal areas in Southeast Fujian will experience strong winds and huge waves from Saturday night.
At the same time, another typhoon, Atsani, is spinning west across the Pacific Ocean and is poised to become the seventh super typhoon of the 2015 season later this week.
The last time there were two super typhoons in the Pacific at the same time was in October 1997, when Super Typhoons Ivan and Joan overlapped. Not coincidentally, 1997 was also the strongest El Niño on record, with sea surface temperatures running far above average across the tropical Pacific Ocean. At the very least, this year's El Niño could at least rival 1997's intensity.
