It’s going to be a rainy, windy week in any or all of the major islands of the region. The possibility of two storms hitting the Mariana Islands archipelago next week is growing, but the chances of either becoming a typhoon by the time they reach Saipan, Tinian, Rota, or Guam have been reduced since Friday night.
Brandon Aydlett, meteorologist for the National Weather Service Guam Office said that global models Saturday morning have consolidated around Invest 93W and Invest 94W forming into either tropical depressions or tropical storms as they make their way toward the Mariana Islands this coming week.
According to Mr. Aydlett, Invest 94W, currently located north of Chuuk state in the Federated States of Micronesia, could form into a depression or a storm and pass somewhere close to Guam on Sunday or Monday. Weather experts expect rain and higher winds for this event, cautioning residents to secure their outdoor property.
“I would say it is a bit of an optimistic forecast for Sunday, Monday,” he said, adding that 94W is so broadly organized and close enough to Guam that it appears it will not have enough time to become a typhoon by the time it makes it closest point of approach to the Marianas.
Invest 93W, forming in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is expected to become a tropical storm midway through its journey toward the Mariana Islands. Whether it will become anything stronger by the time it reaches either Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, or the Northern Islands by midweek is something weather experts are watching and Mr. Aydlett said residents should be vigilant about. However, when asked he provided a crude estimate about the chances of 93W becoming a typhoon: “Based on overnight model data, I would give it a 5 percent chance.” The caveat: Anything can change.
“The most likely scenario,” he said of Invest 94W, “is we’ll have a tropical depression pass by.”
Mr. Aydlett expects the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to upgrade Invest 93W to a tropical depression within the next 24 hours.
