Category 1- or 2-equivalent winds and heavy rain could pummel Okinawa, starting Thursday and going into the weekend from Typhoon Dolphin. (Photo courtesy of Joint Typhoon Warning Center)
11 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2, Japan time: Okinawa remains in for a windy, gusty visitor in Typhoon Dolphin later this week. But it has lost a tad more of its punch, downgraded to a Category 3-equivalent system.
Still, Joint Typhoon Warning Center’s latest forecast track shows Dolphin rumbling just north of Okinawa at mid-afternoon Friday, packing high-end Category 1-equivalent or low-end Category 2-equivalent intensity along with heavy rain. Starting Thursday and lasting into the weekend. Expect a lengthy lockdown.
At 9 p.m. Sunday, Dolphin was about 1,460 miles east of Kadena Air Base, barreling west-northwest at 15 mph and had weakened to 130-mph sustained winds and 155-mph gusts at center. Still a nasty beast.
U.S. bases on Okinawa remained in seasonal Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 4 through Sunday afternoon. Expect accelerated TCCORs as the first full week of August commences.
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