Typhoon Kong-rey Has One of Largest Eyes Ever Seen: ‘Absolutely Massive’

Ameteorologist has pointed out the sheer size of Typhoon Kong-rey’s eye as the massive storm approached Taiwan on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Typhoon Kong-rey had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the website Zoom Earth. The storm has weakened slightly since Tuesday night, when it was categorized as a super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. Forecasts anticipate that Typhoon Kong-rey will weaken further by the time it makes landfall in Kaohsiung in the early morning hours on Thursday.

On Tuesday night, meteorologist Noah Bergren of TV station WOFL in Orlando, Florida, commented on the size of the storm’s eye.

“Super Typhoon Kong-rey is easily one of the largest eye’s in a major tropical system you will ever see on Earth,” Bergren posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Thing is absolutely massive.”

A wave crashes outside of Fugang Harbor in Taitung, Taiwan, ahead of Typhoon Kong-rey on Wednesday. The storm is expected to make landfall in Taiwan early Thursday morning. Annabelle Chih/Getty

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert told Newsweek that having a large eye doesn’t necessarily imply anything about the storm’s strength.

“It just means the winds with it are farther away from the center than if it was a smaller eye,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily have any major defining characteristic of the storm.”

Reppert added that a stronger storm that’s been around longer usually has a wider eye than a newer storm.

Most spaghetti models—or computer models illustrating potential storm paths—show Kong-rey making landfall on Taiwan’s southeast coast and cutting across the island before emerging with maximum sustained winds of around 75 mph. Models indicate that the typhoon will exhibit a northeastern turn away from China, which will take it out to the East China Sea.

Kong-rey’s strength is uncharacteristic for this time of year, The New York Times reported, adding that the typhoon is expected to make landfall equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.

Reppert warned that strong winds up to 140 mph with higher gusts could hit southern Taiwan, though the storm is expected to weaken as it moves over the island. An AccuWeather report warned of “significant structural damage, mudslides and landslides” from the storm, as up to 3 feet of rain is expected to lash Taiwan. The storm could either maintain its intensity or strengthen before it makes landfall early Thursday.

Eastern China and Japan also are expecting heavy rain as the storm progresses.

A typhoon is classified as a severe tropical cyclone occurring in the Northwest Pacific. A hurricane is the term for the same type of storm in the Northeast Pacific and Northern Atlantic. Outside of these regions, the storms are called tropical cyclones.

The mom who stabbed her baby to death is found dead in prison

Six years into her 17-year-long sentence for stabbing her baby with a pair of scissors, Rachel Tunstill dies in prison.

Back in 2017, she stabbed her baby girl, Mia Kelly, more than 15 times in the bathroom of their Burnley home and threw her lifeless body in a bin.

Tunstill was initially convicted of murder and handed a life sentence with minimum term of 20 years, but a re-trial proved the jury in the case should have been offered a verdict of infanticide to consider. During the re-trial she was once again convicted of murder and put behind bars for a minimum of 17 years.

“HMP Styal prisoner Rachel Tunstill died in custody on 1 August 2023. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate,” a spokesperson from the Prison Service confirmed the news of her passing.

At the time she gave birth, her boyfriend was playing video games in the next room. She then told him she had a miscarriage and asked for the scissors after which she remorselessly stabbed the baby to death.

At the time of sentencing, the judge, Mr Justice King, said: “This must have been a sustained and frenzied attack on a victim who because of her age was particularly vulnerable. Her duty to her newborn baby was to cradle and comfort her – not to stab her to death.

“There was here in my judgement concealment of the body, albeit short-lived and in addition there was undoubtedly the indignity which was wrought upon the body by disposing of it in the way she did.”