The National Weather Service Guam Weather Forecast Office is reporting that Tropical Storm Hagibis continues to strengthen and could become a typhoon later tonight or early Monday morning as it nears the northern CNMI.
At 1 p.m. today Sunday, Tropical Storm Hagibis was located 620 miles east of Saipan moving west at 21 mph with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
In the last few hours, Hagibis has shown a slight deviation to the west-southwest and there may be changes in the watches and warnings for the CNMI and Guam in the next few hours, NWS said.
As of the 2 p.m. forecast track, Hagibis was expected to pass near Anatahan as a category 1 typhoon late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Again, NWS warns that some shifts in track, timing and intensity are to be expected with subsequent forecast updates.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for all islands of the CNMI. That means: tropical storm conditions, including damaging winds of 39 mph and greater, are expected within 24 hours, around Monday afternoon.
A typhoon watch for Alamagan has been extended to include Tinian, Saipan and Pagan. This means, typhoon conditions, including destructive winds of 74 mph or more, are possible within 24 hours.
Stay up to date with the latest forecasts from the National Weather Service via www.weather.gov/gum.
For additional preparedness tips, visit the CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management web page at http://www.cnmihsem.gov.mp/ and the Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense web page at https://www.ghs.guam.gov/ .
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