Super typhoon Sanba to bring storms to NE China

BEIJING - China's meteorological authority said Sunday the super typhoon Sanba will bring strong wind to regions along its course and rainstorms to northeastern China over the next few days.

Sanba, the 16th typhoon of the year, was positioned at about 65 kilometers east of the Japanese island of Okinawa at 5 a.m., according to a statement posted on the website of China's National Meteorological Center (NMC).

The typhoon will move northwest at a speed of around 25 km per hour and bring heavy rainfalls to China's northeastern provinces from Monday to Tuesday, the center said.

Storms will hit the north and southeast of Heilongjiang Province and eastern Jilin Province over the next two days, while some regions will see downpours of 100 to 120 millimeters, the NMC forecast.

The NMC said in a separate forecast release that Sanba has entered the southeast of East China Sea by 9 am and it was about 690 kilometers south of the Jeju Island of the Republic of Korea.

The speed at the center of the super typhoon is 52 meters per second, and its strength will stay unchanged or slightly weaken as it moves northward toward the south of the Korean Peninsula, the center said.

The center forecast that the typhoon will bring strong wind to the western part of East China Sea, waters east of Taiwan, the estuary of the Yangtze River, the Hangzhou Bay, the central and southern parts of the Yellow Sea and coastal areas in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces over the next day.

The nation's flood control authority on Friday urged residents in the coastal regions to be fully prepared for possible influences of the Sanba and take precautions against wind, moisture and strong rainfall.