Tropical Storm Bavi is intensifying over the warm Pacific waters east of Guam on Thursday and appears poised to rapidly intensify into a dangerous Category 4 or Category 5 super typhoon that will affect the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam on Sunday. Late next week, Bavi may bring additional severe impacts to Asia.
As we move deeper into the most active months of the long 2026 Western Pacific typhoon season, the fourth typhoon of the year is brewing just west of Guam. So far this year, there have been seven tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific, with three making landfall and causing more than a dozen fatalities. One of those storms, Super Typhoon Sinlaku, made landfall in the Northern Mariana Islands as a powerful Category 4-equivalent typhoon. In fact, Typhoon Sinlaku remains the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall anywhere in the world so far in 2026.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), based in Hawaii, released an advisory Thursday morning on Tropical Storm Bavi (09W). Bavi is expected not only to become a typhoon within the next 24 hours, but also to reach super typhoon status before approaching Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands sometime Sunday afternoon or evening. The past few advisories have shifted the timing slightly earlier (and a bit more south), now showing Bavi moving through the islands sooner than previously forecast.
