Typhoon Rammasun has rustled up more strength than anticipated and could grow into a near-super typhoon in the South China Sea ahead of landfall over the Hainan Island, part of China, this evening.

Model forecasts suggest it has already grown into a cageroy-4 storm, just below super typhoon status.

New-born storm

It is packing winds speeding up more than 200 km/hr, according to an update from the London-based Tropical Storm Risk Gorup.

After landfall, the powerful typhoon will weaken and step out into the Gulf of Tonkin to the west, and aim for the Vietnamese coast for a second landfall tomorrow.

Meanwhile this morning, the northwest Pacific has given birth to the latest tropical storm, named Matmo, which too is forecast to become a typhoon in that basin.

Matmo is forecast to take a west-northwest track, much more northerly than Rammasun, which would take it towards Taiwan as a category-2 typhoon into the next week.

Lateral gains

As for the Indian monsoon, both Rammasun and Matmo are expected to generate lateral gains in terms of incoming helpful circulations dropping anchor in the Bay of Bengal and grow there.

The Rammasun is offspring is forecast to present itself as a low-pressure area by as early as Sunday; initial forecasts suggest the Matmo remnant would earn its spurs by Sunday next (July 27).

This will ensure a march of ‘low’s in procession from the assembly line of Bay of Bengal, and expectedly help sustain the monsoon well into the month-end, if not early into August.

The US Climate Prediction Centre has forecast heavy to moderate rainfall over west and the northwest India until July 31, though interior peninsula and central India will remain largely dry during the period.

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