China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said Malakas entered the southern part of the East China Sea on Saturday afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported Saturday. Currently the state is in an orange alert, the second highest level, with waves expected to be 7-12 metres high off southern and central parts of the East China Sea and nearby Diaoyu Islands this weekend. 4.4 metres-high waves are expected in the coastal parts of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.
Ships are warned to stay clear of coastal parts of Fujian, Guangdong and Shanghai. China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters are prepared to cope with the storm.
Earlier this week, typhoon Meranti slammed East Asia, leaving 28 people dead and 15 missing in Fujian and Zhejiang Chinese provinces. It sustained winds of 180 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, which made it the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale. So far, Meranti was the strongest storm of 2016 and one of three most powerful typhoons ever recorded.
A research study, conducted by the University of North Carolina, shows that in the Western Pacific typhoons increased in strength over the past 40 years.
As the author of the research, climate scientist Wei Mei said, "In 2016 so far, there have been six typhoons in the northwestern Pacific. Three have already made it to category 4 or 5. In the late 1970s, only about one-quarter of typhoons reached that strength. Now about half do."
