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Typhoon Maria makes landfall in China

Ben Domensino, Wednesday July 11, 2018 - 11:39 AEST

Typhoon Maria made landfall in eastern China on Wednesday after crossing Japan's Ryukyu Islands and narrowly missing northern Taiwan during the last 24 hours.

After gaining strength over the Philippine Sea earlier this week, Typhoon Maria passed directly over Japan's Miyako Islands - part of the Ryukyu Island group on Tuesday. The system then travelled to the north of Taiwan in the early hours of Wednesday morning, coming within about 100km of the country's capital city, Taipei. Maria's final coastal crossing occurred to the north of the Chinese city Fuzhou on Wednesday morning, in the country's Fujian province.

Japan's Meteorological Agency estimated wind gusts near Maria's core to be reaching around 220km/h on Wednesday morning, prior to landfall. This is equivalent to a category three severe tropical cyclone on the Australian scale.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau (CWB) had warnings in place for heavy rain in more than half of the country on Wednesday, including Taipei. According to data on the CWB's website, a rain gauge located in Taipei's mountainous Beitou district registered 405mm of rain during the 33 hours ending at 9am on Thursday, local time. Of this amount, 291mm fell during nine hours on Thursday morning.

Image: Top 10 accumulated rainfall totals in Taiwan during the 33 hours ending at 9am on Wednesday 11th July, 2018. Source - Central Weather Bureau

At the time of landfall, the China Meteorological Administration also had warnings in place for wind and rainfall. According to these warnings, some areas near Typhoon Maria's landfall location were expected to receive 200-300mm of rain and wind gusts above 200km/h.

The weakening remnants of Typhoon Maria will spread heavy rain across southeastern China as it moves further inland during the remainder of this week, which is likely to cause flooding.

- Weatherzone

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