In early July 2026, for the second time in three months, a powerful typhoon crossed the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in the North Pacific Ocean.
Super Typhoon Bavi was at peak intensity when it neared the islands on the night of July 5, bringing winds of 290 kilometers per hour, along with torrential rain and dangerous storm surge.
This nighttime image, captured by theVIIRS on theNOAA-20satellite, shows Bavi’s eye at about 15:30 Universal Time on July 5.
Light from the Moon, which was in thewaning gibbous phase, illuminates the eyewall’s western side.
The eye passed over Rota, north of Guam, several hours after the image was acquired.
Bavi became asuper typhoonin the early hours of July 4 local time while tracking west over the warm ocean.
Satellite observations indicated that sea surface temperatures were around30 degrees Celsius in the region.
Bavi was thethird tropical cyclonein 2026 to reach category 5 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
The typhoon caused extensive damage across Guam, Rota, and Saipan, according tonews reports, downing power poles and lines; flooding roads and littering them with debris; and damaging buildings, including a water distribution station on Rota.
U.S. Coast Guard crews worked to clear navigation hazards in the waterways around Guam and the Northern Marianas and reopen ports as dangerous marine conditions subsided, according toreports.
This damage comes on top of destructive winds and flooding from Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which crossed the islands in mid-April.
On July 8, Bavi remained a powerful typhoon as it moved west over the Philippine Sea.
In the early afternoon, when the image above was captured, the National Weather Servicereported maximum sustained wind speeds of 250 kilometers per hour.
Forecasts indicated the typhoon’s track could bend northwest toward Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, and mainland China and weaken over the next several days.
Writing inYale Climate Connections, meteorologist Jeff Masters said that Bavi is the type of storm that might be expected when a strong El Niño event is building, which iscurrently the case.
El Niño-year typhoons may form farther east, giving them more time over warm water to intensify before curving toward Asia, Masters explained, “resulting in a greater chance of reaching Category 5 intensity.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from NASAEOSDIS LANCE,GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System, and hurricane track data from theU.S.
Naval Research Laboratory.
Story by Lindsey Doermann.
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CIMSS Satellite BlogSuper Typhoon Bavi rapidly intensifies to a Category 5 storm east of Guam, eventually passing just north of the island of Rota. Accessed July 8, 2026.
Military.comCoast Guard Works to Reopen Guam, CNMI Ports After Super Typhoon Bavi. Accessed July 8, 2026.
NASA Earth ObservatorySuper Typhoon Sinlaku. Accessed July 8, 2026.
National Weather ServicePublic Tropical Cyclone Advisory. Accessed July 8, 2026.
Weather UndergroundSuper Typhoon Bavi. Accessed July 8, 2026.
Yale Climate ConnectionsSuper Typhoon Bavi becomes the 3rd Cat 5 of 2026. Accessed July 8, 2026.
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The violent storm aimed at the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in mid-April 2026.
The sprawling storm promised to deliver torrential rain across a wide swath of southern Japan.
Satellites observed striking upper-atmosphere phenomena generated by an intensifying tropical cyclone.
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