Typhoon Sinlaku is forecast to intensify to 150 mph as it nears Guam by Monday, putting the 210-square-mile island on track for a direct hit from one of the strongest storms to threaten it in years.
The Guam Homeland Security Office of Civil Defense said residents and visitors should begin preparing now, warning that the impacts will be felt well beyond the center of the storm as a large wind field envelops much of the Mariana Islands. The agency said there remains a significant threat of a powerful typhoon passing very close to Guam, where a direct strike would make Sinlaku only the sixth storm of its kind to hit the island with major hurricane force.
That matters because Guam has not taken a typhoon like this in April before. No tropical cyclone in recorded history has made landfall on Guam during the month, and only one storm, Olive in 1963, came close by passing off to the west.
The forecast also lands with painful memory still fresh on the island. Guam was badly affected by Typhoon Mawar in 2023, when destructive winds and torrential rain left nearly 98% of the island without power and produced a 108 mph gust at Guam International Airport. Mawar passed just north of Guam as a Category 4 equivalent storm, and Sinlaku now appears capable of bringing another severe test to a place that knows exactly how quickly a typhoon can upend daily life.
The western Pacific is off to an active start this spring, with two storms swirling and an early-season surge of tropical activity already under way. For Guam, the next hours are about preparation, not waiting: Sinlaku is expected to keep strengthening as it closes in, and the island sits squarely in the path of a storm that could arrive with major hurricane-force winds at full strength.
