TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tropical Storm Lan has formed in the Pacific and the chance of it hitting Taiwan is deemed low, said the Central Weather Bureau on Tuesday (Aug. 8).

As of 8 a.m., Lan was located in the waters southeast of Japan, moving northwest at a speed of 5 kph. It was packing sustained winds of 18 meters per second with gusts up to 25 meters per second, according to the CWB.

Lan is expected to move in the direction of Japan in the coming days as it intensifies. Conditions are ripe for it to grow into a typhoon by Thursday (Aug. 10), meteorologist Chao Hung (趙竑) told CNA.

In the meantime, Khanun has been downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm and is headed toward South Korea. It brushed past Taiwan’s northern coast and traveled around Japan’s southwestern islands for a week.

Khanun dumped heavy rain and ravaged Japan’s Okinawa while also causing floods and landslides in central Taiwan. South Korea has started to evacuate thousands of scouts in a global scout jamboree from a coastal campsite as it braces for Khanun.

(CWB image)