Typhoon Doksuri Gains Power as It Threatens Philippines, Taiwan

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Doksuri has strengthened further and may intensify into a super typhoon before a possible landfall in northern Philippines en route to Taiwan.

The typhoon is moving westward “slowly” with maximum winds of 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 185 kilometers, the Philippine weather bureau said on Monday. It may become a super typhoon by late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Located 322 nautical miles east of Manila, the typhoon has tracked west-northwestward at 4 knots (4.6 miles per hour) over the past six hours, according to the US military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Doksuri may make its closest point of approach to the port city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan on Thursday, it said.

Doksuri may become the first typhoon to hit Taiwan since 2019, according to Chang Cheng Chuan, a forecaster at its Central Forecast Center. A sea warning may be issued as early as Monday night, according to Taiwan.

In the typhoon’s path should it continue the current trajectory is Taiwan’s largest LNG import terminal, Yung-An, along with a couple of key oil refineries.

In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. suspended government work and public-school classes in the capital region of Manila on Monday, citing weather risks and a scheduled transport strike.

Marcos is set to deliver his State of the Nation Address at 4 p.m. local time. Currency and bond markets in the Philippines are closed while stock trading is open on Monday.

More areas in eastern Philippines are under Signal No. 2, the second in a five-tier wind strength classification, while the capital region is under the lowest alert, the weather bureau said. More than 11,100 individuals have been affected, with over a thousand displaced so far, according to the nation’s disaster risk-reduction and management agency.

–With assistance from Kevin Varley, Sing Yee Ong, Cecilia Yap, Chien-Hua Wan and Denise Wee.

Photograph: Fishermen riding wooden boats tread the waters of Manila Bay, the Philippines, on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Photo credit: Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg