As powerful Typhoon Champi churned toward Taiwan’s northeast coast on Friday, the entire East Asia region faced widespread disruption, with hundreds of flights canceled, daily operations shuttered, and emergency teams on high alert ahead of the storm’s expected peak impact on Saturday.
Taiwan authorities have pre-emptively closed schools, government offices and the island’s $5 trillion stock exchange across 21 of its 22 counties and cities, granting residents a widespread “typhoon holiday” as the storm approached. Only the western outlying archipelago of Kinmen maintained normal operations. Authorities have also issued urgent warnings, urging residents to avoid coastal areas and mountainous terrain that face the greatest risk of storm surge and landslides.
As of Friday, local authorities confirmed one person was killed after being swept away by rogue Champi-driven waves, with 171 others injured and more than 1,000 people evacuated from high-risk zones to emergency shelters. While regional weather forecasts from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan indicate the storm’s eye will most likely remain offshore as it passes the island, Taiwan Central Weather Administration forecasters told reporters they cannot rule out a landfall, particularly if the storm shifts its path or stalls as it approaches the coast.
Forecasts call for up to 90 centimeters of torrential rain and sustained strong winds across northeast Taiwan through Saturday, with rainfall expected to peak Saturday morning before tapering off Saturday evening.
Champi carved a path of disruption far beyond Taiwan. In Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture, nearly 8,400 households were left without power, and more than 160 flights operated by four major Japanese carriers were canceled. In the Batanes island chain of the Philippines, located south of Taiwan, the storm stirred up towering waves that crashed into coastal villages, forcing multiple road closures; no casualties have been reported in the area as of Friday.
Earlier this week, Champi earned its title as the strongest storm on Earth so far in 2025, reaching maximum sustained wind speeds of 298 kilometers per hour over the Philippine Sea, equal to a Category 5 hurricane. Though it has weakened since its peak, it still packs wind gusts of 191 kilometers per hour as of Friday afternoon.
After skirting Taiwan’s northeast tip and Okinawa, Champi is projected to drift over waters off China’s eastern coast before curving northeast toward Japan’s main island. The storm comes amid an unusually active typhoon season for the region, amplified by a powerful Super El Niño event that is warming Pacific Ocean waters and fueling more intense and frequent storm systems. This year marks the first time since 2013 that Japan has recorded 30 typhoons in a single season, underscoring the extreme weather trend tied to the current El Niño cycle.