BEIJING, July 9 (Reuters) - Typhoon Bavi churned southeast of Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, its winds easing overnight to just shy of 200 kph (124 mph), as authorities urged residents to stock up on supplies and brace for what could be the most powerful typhoon since 2024.
Bavi, currently about 1,000 km (621 miles) at its widest point or roughly the width of France, is forecast to skirt northern Taiwan before making landfall in China's eastern Fujian province on Saturday evening, according to China's National Meteorological Centre.
Bavi is set to be the largest storm by size to hit Taiwan since 1987, Jason Chang, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration forecaster, told Reuters, adding that storms of this size have been "fairly rare in recent years".
China, the world's second-largest economy, along with neighbouring Japan and Taiwan, are increasingly exposed to destructive weather events that scientists link to climate change. This year is of particular concern because the expected emergence of El Nino could drive up temperatures and help fuel more frequent and intense typhoons.
If Bavi maintains its forecast intensity, it would be the most powerful typhoon, as hurricanes are known in the Asia-Pacific region, since Super Typhoon Kong-rey in 2024, according to AccuWeather, a commercial weather forecasting service.
"Some loss of wind intensity is anticipated starting Thursday, but Bavi will remain a dangerous storm as it impacts Taiwan and eastern China later Friday into Monday," according to Jason Nicholls, AccuWeather international forecasting expert.
Japan's meteorological agency urged residents of Okinawa, the country's southernmost prefecture, to remain on high alert on Friday and Saturday for violent winds, landslides, flooding and storm surges.
In Taiwan, President Lai Ching-te in a Facebook post urged people to prepare supplies from food to torches and shared a video teaching people how to pull together an emergency grab bag that could give life support for three days.
"We should pay much attention to Bavi as it has spent a long time intensifying over the open Pacific, extracting energy from warm ocean and accumulating large amounts of moisture," said Xiangbo Feng, research scientist in tropical cyclones at Imperial College London.
"When it would make landfall or get close to coastal regions, the damage could be catastrophic. A small change in Bavi's track could have a significant influence," Feng added.
(Reporting by Joe Cash and Xiuhao Chen in Beijing, Yimou Lee in Taipei & Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Perry)
