96W Invest: Guam and the Marianas might be in the crosshairs

Intensity and forecast track remain uncertain, but Marianas Islands might be facing yet another tropical cyclone this coming weekend.

Guam may face yet another bout with a tropical cyclone as 29W is forecast to skim the island’s northeast coast at mid-morning Sunday. Guam may face yet another bout with a tropical cyclone as 29W is forecast to skim the island’s northeast coast at mid-morning Sunday. (Joint Typhoon Warning Center) 12:20 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, Guam time: Tropical Depression 29W spawned Wednesday evening more than 1,000 miles east-southeast of Guam. It looks as though the Marianas Islands, in particular Guam, are in for it once more – as if they haven’t taken enough of a pounding this year. At 10 p.m. Guam time, 29W was about 1,130 miles east-southeast of Andersen Air Force Base, moving north at 10 mph with 35-mph sustained winds and 45-mph gusts.

U.S. bases on Guam remained in seasonal Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 4 through Wednesday evening. If 29W continues moving and developing as forecast, JTWC projects it to move west-northwest and hurtle about 10 miles north-northeast of Andersen at mid-morning Sunday as a Category 2-equivalent typhoon. Already, Guam’s Department of Homeland Security and Office of Civil Defense is warning the citizenry to prepare well in advance for 29W’s forecast passage. Even the island’s high school football league moved Friday’s and Saturday’s scheduled games up one day. Dave Ornauer has been employed by or assigned