Super Typhoon Champi intensifies to a Cat 5 after battering Guam - Yale Climate Connections
Super Typhoon Champi has intensified into a Category 5 storm after passing near Guam, where it caused minimal damage. The storm is currently tracking toward Taiwan with favorable conditions expected to maintain its high intensity.
Why it matters
The storm represents the ninth Category 5 event of 2026, highlighting ongoing concerns regarding extreme weather patterns and climate-related disaster preparedness.
After lashing Guam as a Cat 4 super typhoon with 150 mph (240 km/h) winds, Super Typhoon Champi intensified just six hours later – at 0Z Sunday, October 18 – into a formidable Cat 5 with sustained winds of 165 mph (265 km/h), said the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). The center of Super Typhoon Champi passed about 12 miles (20 km) south of Guam’s southern tip around 18Z (2 p.m. EDT) Saturday, Oct. 17. The northern eyewall barely grazed Guam’s southern tip, so the island escaped catastrophic wind damage.
JTWC initially analyzed Champi as a Cat 4 with 150 mph winds at 00 UTC Oct. 18, but in a subsequent forecast discussion, they noted they had reanalyzed the 0Z intensity, upgrading it to Cat 5. Champi is the ninth Cat 5 observed globally so far in 2026 (see below).
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