Guam and other U.S. island territories in the western Pacific Ocean on Monday braced for the most powerful storm of the year so far, which could bring destructive winds and widespread flooding over the next 48 hours, forecasts show.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku was traveling west-northwest toward the Marianas Islands just after 9 a.m. ET — or 11 p.m. in the local time zone — according to the National Weather Service office in Guam, which is home to three U.S. military bases. The Marianas are an archipelago comprising 15 different islands, including Guam, in the western Pacific, about 1,500 miles east of the Philippines. They are U.S.-held territories.
The typhoon’s maximum sustained winds stabilized at 175 mph as the massive storm approached the island chain, after peaking at 180 mph on Sunday. This is the strongest storm to develop in 2026, behind typhoons Narelle and Dudzai, which respectively peaked at 149 and 147 mph, said CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan.
In the Southwest Pacific, “typhoon” is the term used to describe a tropical storm that forecasters would call a hurricane in the U.S. They’re just two different names for the same kind of weather system.
Atlantic hurricanes are ranked on a scale of 1 to 5 that categorizes them by their capacity to cause damage. The highest ranking, Category 5, is assigned to storms that have sustained winds of at least 157 mph. In the Pacific, a typhoon of that intensity is called a “super typhoon.”
