Typhoon Champi Eyewall Moves Ashore Over Southern Guam

Updated 05:52 UTC, Oct 21, 2026

Champi is a super typhoon again, and it now has a Philippine name. PAGASA, the Philippine weather bureau, said in its 5 a.m. bulletin on Wednesday, October 21 that the storm, known locally as Rosal, was 990 kilometers east of Northern Luzon, with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 265 kilometers per hour, moving west-northwest at 30 kilometers per hour.

PAGASA raised Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 1 over seven areas: Batanes, the Babuyan Islands, mainland Cagayan, the eastern portion of Isabela, the northern and central portions of Apayao, the northeastern portion of Ilocos Norte, and the northeastern portion of Catanduanes. The bureau said the highest signal that may be raised during the passage is No. 2 or 3. Heavy rainfall warnings cover Ilocos Norte, Apayao and Cagayan, with 50 to 100 millimeters of rain expected within 24 hours, and the bureau warned of possible flooding and landslides in areas hit by heavy rain. Seas off Batanes and the northern and eastern coasts of Cagayan, including the Babuyan Islands, could reach eight meters.

The bureau said Rosal is unlikely to make a direct landfall in the Philippines. The storm is expected to come closest to extreme Northern Luzon between Thursday and Friday afternoon, and to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility by Friday evening or early Saturday morning. Rosal entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Tuesday. It is the country's 18th tropical cyclone of 2026 and its first of October.

Updated 18:46 UTC: Guam gets the all clear as Champi pulls away

Guam is out of the storm. Governor Lou Leon Guerrero declared Condition of Readiness 4, the island's all clear, at 6 p.m. local time on Sunday. The National Weather Service office in Tiyan had cancelled all typhoon warnings for Guam at 4:50 p.m., and its evening discussion said every tropical cyclone watch and warning for the Marianas was cancelled as Champi moved west into the Philippine Sea.

The storm passed about 10 miles south of Merizo at 4:26 a.m. local time and briefly reached super typhoon strength as it went by. The weather service put its sustained winds at 150 mph on Sunday morning, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center later raised its estimate of the peak at 00:00 UTC to 167 mph. In Warning 17, issued at 15:00 UTC, the center downgraded Champi from a super typhoon and put the center about 215 miles west of Naval Base Guam. Forecasters expect the storm to regain super typhoon strength over open water, far from Guam.

The power grid bent but did not break. The Guam Power Authority said about 75 percent of the island still had electricity shortly after the closest approach. By 7:50 a.m. the share was down to about half, as shifting winds brought more lines down, mostly in the south. There was no island wide blackout. The hospital, most of Hotel Row in Tumon and the military bases kept power. Guam Memorial Hospital treated three people for storm related problems, including one minor injury from a wind related fall, and all three were discharged.

Water took a hit in the south. The Guam Waterworks Authority had 98 production wells running on Sunday morning, 72 of them on standby generators, and it shut the Ugum treatment plant after flooding clouded the Ugum River. Parts of Pago Bay, Malesso' and Latte Heights had low pressure or no water.

A presidential emergency declaration has cleared the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate federal help for Guam. Public schools stay closed on Monday, October 19, so buildings can be inspected, and government teams are checking roads, debris and flooding across the island. The water is still dangerous: forecasters said outer rain bands could bring locally heavy rain on Sunday night, and high surf and rip currents continue into Monday afternoon.

Updated 00:39 UTC: Closest approach is past, but Guam stays sheltered

Typhoon Champi has made its closest approach to Guam and is moving away, but officials are not giving the all clear. The National Weather Service Intermediate Advisory 13A, issued at 5:14 a.m. local time on Sunday, put the closest approach at about 4:26 a.m., very near the southern point of Guam. The advisory did not say the center made landfall.

At 5 a.m. local time the center was about 35 miles south-southwest of Guam, moving west at 14 mph, and the storm held at Category 4 with sustained winds of 140 mph. Forecasters expected it to keep that strength through Sunday night.

Guam and Rota remained under typhoon warnings early on Sunday. The Extreme Wind Warning for southern Guam and the Flash Flood Warning for the island listed an end time of 5:30 a.m., and forecasters stressed that the time alone is not an all clear. A flood watch covers Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan through Sunday afternoon, and Tinian and Saipan remain under tropical storm warnings with typhoon watches still in place.

Residents were told to stay inside a sturdy, concrete reinforced building, in an interior room away from windows, until Condition of Readiness 4 is announced. No such announcement had been made. Officials had released no confirmed casualty figure and no damage total, and assessments by community had not yet been reported.

Updated 19:22 UTC: Eyewall moving ashore in southern Guam

Typhoon Champi's northern eyewall is moving ashore over southern Guam, and the National Weather Service office in Guam has issued an Extreme Wind Warning for the far south of the island, in effect until 5:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. The warning covers Talofofo, Inarajan, Merizo, Santa Rita and Umatac, where forecasters expect catastrophic, life threatening winds of 115 to 135 mph.

Fox Weather put Champi's sustained winds at 140 mph on Saturday afternoon, United States time, with the storm about 55 miles southeast of Guam and tracking just south of the island. Forecasters expect it to keep strengthening, with peak winds near 155 mph possible. The weather service warned that going outside during the eyewall can result in death from flying projectiles, and told people in the warning area to shelter in a reinforced interior room away from windows.

In Tamuning, winds were already blowing from the east at 51 mph with gusts to 78 mph as pressure fell rapidly, Weather.com observations showed. A flash flood warning and a coastal flood warning are also in effect for the island.

Guam is in its highest state of readiness on Saturday night as Typhoon Champi, now a Category 4 storm, closes on the island. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center put Champi at 130 mph with gusts to 161 mph at 4 p.m. local time, and forecasters expect it to pass just south of Guam between 4 and 5 a.m. Sunday with winds near 150 mph at its closest approach.

The storm was near 12.5 degrees north and 147.3 degrees east at 4 p.m., heading west-northwest at 15 mph. It is still gaining strength. Earlier on Saturday the National Weather Service office in Guam put Champi at Category 2 with 100 mph winds, 225 miles east-southeast of the island, and warned that a direct pass at Category 3 strength would make it the strongest typhoon to strike Guam since Typhoon Mawar in May 2023. The upgrade to Category 4 came hours later.

The Joint Information Center said all of Guam will feel Category 3 conditions or worse, with the exact point of closest approach still uncertain. Stars and Stripes, reporting on the Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast, put the center clipping the southern edge of the island around sunrise Sunday with 120 mph sustained winds and gusts to 145 mph at the core. The center stressed that any shift in the track could still bring the storm directly over Guam, so no one should judge the danger by how calm it looks at any given moment.

Shelter before sunset

Guam entered Condition of Readiness 1 at 1 p.m. Saturday, the Joint Information Center said. Officials told everyone to be inside a safe shelter before sunset and to stay indoors in a secured, concrete reinforced building. People in southern villages and in coastal, flood prone areas were told to leave for safe shelter, with life threatening coastal flooding expected.

A typhoon warning is in effect for Guam and Rota, and a tropical storm warning covers Tinian and Saipan, the Associated Press reported. A flash flood warning runs into early Sunday, and coastal flood and high surf warnings run into Monday.

Six evacuation centers open

Six emergency evacuation centers are open across the island. Five of them, Machananao Elementary School, Maria Ulloa Elementary School, Astumbo Elementary School, George Washington High School and Talofofo Elementary School, can hold up to 1,964 people between them. A sixth center opened at Inarajan Middle School at 1 p.m.

Weather service meteorologists urged anyone living in a home made of wood and tin to move to an evacuation center or to a fully concrete building. Conditions were expected to worsen through Saturday night, with damaging winds arriving first and the worst of the storm overnight, around the closest pass before dawn on Sunday.