TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tropical Storm Bebinca (貝碧佳) was upgraded to a typhoon on Sunday (Sept. 15) before passing over Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture during the day, and then made landfall over Shanghai in the evening.

Warnings were also issued on Sunday for a second tropical storm gaining strength in the western Pacific, likely to follow a similar path behind Bebinca, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Weather should be relatively clear over Taiwan for the Mid-Autumn Festival on Tuesday (Sept. 17), however, the new storm could affect Taiwan later in the week. 

The tropical depression, currently identified as TD16, is expected to become a typhoon sometime late on Monday (Sept. 16). 

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecasts that the storm will reach Okinawa on Wednesday (Sept. 18). Unlike Bebinca, the new storm system is expected to drift in a southwesterly direction on Wednesday or Thursday (Sept. 19) toward the Taiwan Strait.     

Based on its current trajectory, JMA forecasts the storm will make landfall over China sometime Thursday night or Friday morning. The storm, likely to be a typhoon by then, may bring heavy rain to northern and western Taiwan later this week.