Category 5+ Typhoon Yutu is ravaging U.S. islands of Saipan, Tinian with 180 mph winds

Super Typhoon Yutu hitting the Northern Mariana Islands. (Colorado State / RAMMB)

The Typhoon Joint Warning Center considers Yutu an incredibly strong Category 5-equivalent typhoon. Since reconnaissance planes do not fly in the western Pacific, the intensity of 180 mph, or 155 knots, is based on estimates from satellites.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue of WeatherModels.com tweeted that the storm would be "Category 6 if Atlantic scale was extrapolated."

According to Phil Klotzbach of the Capital Weather Gang, Yutu is "tied with mankind for the strongest storm of the 2018 season to date." If it strengthens, Yutu will rank among the most intense storms ever recorded.

"This is a historically significant event," tweeted Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Although the western Pacific is where the world's most powerful tropical cyclones tend to form, Yutu's strength is likely to be unprecedented in modern history for the Northern Mariana Islands. The islands are home to more than 50,000 people, most of whom live on the largest, northernmost island of Saipan.

Yutu is pbading through the island chain. In Saipan, wind gusts to hurricane, and much worse will move through the eyes of the storm. Gusts could top 200 mph.

AT terrifying, grating wind can be heard in a live EarthCam broadcasting from the island. As the storm approached Saipan, the pressure was plummeting at an astonishing rate.

The islands of Tinian and Saipan are taking the eyewall, which is typically where most severe conditions are found, of the right-front quadrant of Yutu. Extreme destruction and suffering in these areas should be anticipated.

Tea National Weather Service's advisory for the islands conveyed a message, warning of "devastating damage" from the "collapse of residential structures", "partial or total destruction of industrial buildings, and loss of water and electricity for days to weeks.

In addition to winds that will flatten structures and forests, a storm surge as high as 20 feet is possible in the hardest-hit coastal locations. Storm surge acts as a storm-driven tsunami, and the 20 feet of surge does not count battering waves. Rainfall approaching or surpbading one foot is likely to lead to freshwater flooding and landslides.

It's a clbadic and absolutely textbook storm on satellite, resembling a buzz saw. You do not see them much more intense.

After pbading the Mariana Islands, it is possible to maintain an intensity close to its peak for the next day or two before slowly weakening as it moves to the Philippine Sea. Models are mixed on whether or not there is more. The Philippines to Japan should certainly keep an eye out.