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.
First-time mom is stunned when newborn baby lifts her head and crawls across the hospital cot
Three weeks late into this world, Nyilah Daise Tzabari arrived with an expediated plan to make up for lost time and get things done.
Lifting her head and scooting across her cot at only three days, Nyilah, a super baby, is evolving unusually fast, leaving her first-time mom and dad in shock.
Still in the hospital, baby Nyilah was captured on camera, lifting her own head and crawling in her cot.
She was less than three days old.
“The video was taken when Nyilah wasn’t even a full three days old. She was two and a half days old,” said first-time mom, Samantha Mitchell, of White Oak, PA, who added her wonder baby makes her feel like “she’s never had a newborn.”
Speaking with Kennedy News (though New York Post), the 34-year-old mom said, “I’ve babysat most of my life and have over 20 years’ experience with children and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She continued, “I guess I’ve never been around many babies at three days old so there are a lot of (nuances) in it but I have never seen a baby like this ever.”
In the TikTok video, when Nyilah uses her tiny front arms to prop herself up and crawl, you can hear Samantha’s mom say, “no fricken way,” and Samantha, who sounds gobsmacked, saying “Oh my gosh. Mom! She’s crawling! Mom!…how does that even move?”
Responding to her baby’s cooing, Samantha says, “Well that’s what happens when you spend too much time in mommy’s belly.”
Born to parents Samantha and her fiancé Ofer Tzabari, Nyilah was three weeks late. She entered the world on February 27, 2023 at 7 lbs 6 oz and went viral when Samantha filmed her unexpected movements to prove to her family and friends that her baby was already crawling.
“My mother was the only other person in the room when it happened and she told me to record it,” Samantha said. “No one would have believed me otherwise. My fiancé wasn’t in the room, and I know if I didn’t get it on film, he would not have believed me…(The video shows) the first time I saw her crawl and I was in complete shock…The way she lifted her head too and was babbling left me in complete shock,” she added.
The video, Samantha’s first on TikTok, has 57.5 million views.
Fans were equally surprised about Nyilah’s incredible strength, and jumped in with comments like, “These new babies are different they come out crawling and be walking at 1 month old, talking at 3 months and getting jobs at 2yrs old.”
Another user jokes, “I would run out without the baby,” while one says, “Rumor has it she left on a plane a day later to live life.”
According to Healthline, most babies start to creep or crawl around six to 12 months. “And for many of them, the crawling stage doesn’t last long–once they get a taste of independence, they start pulling up and cruising on the way to walking.”
“Oh momma! you better get home and baby proof! that little is already on the move!!” One user wrote, cautioning Samantha on her quickly developing newborn.
“Sometimes I laugh and just think I wish she could be a baby,” Samantha said.
It seems like Nyilah is on the fast-track to growing up. At only 18 days, she was rolling from her belly to her back, at one month old, she was smiling at her mom, at two months she was rolling from her back to her belly, and at three months, she was slugging her mom with her powerful arms.
In an adorable video posted June 6, Samantha gets a mitten-covered fist to the face and giggling, she says, “Oh you punched mommy.”
In addition to testing out the strength of her arms, Nyilah is already standing with support, and mom predicts it won’t be long until she starts walking.
“Without a doubt, she will start walking soon. She stands at the moment. She puts so much weight on her legs. We’re not trying to make her stand. She just refuses to buckle her knees and sit down,” Samantha said. “She isn’t standing on her own yet, but she stands holding us and is always trying to stand.”
Also, Samantha shares that Nyilah is so strong, that she no longer needs her head and neck supported.
“I’m shocked every day by her. She tries to push herself out of her little chair and bouncer when we put her in it too…She is a very alert baby and has been since she was born. From day one her strength was very shocking to us,” the mom said.
Nyilah is turning out to be very chatty. At seven weeks, she tried to have a conversation, mimicking words spoken by her mom and dad, Ofer.
“We always say I love you to her and she seemed to be trying to repeat it to us and trying to say it. We couldn’t believe it. It is more like babbling but she is definitely trying to copy us,” Samantha said. “If she makes a noise and we laugh, she will keep making the noise because she knows we’ll react. She’s a very clever baby.
Nyilah is also a very happy baby.
“She is such a smiley, happy baby and laughs all the time. The second you smile at her; she starts smiling and laughing back at us. She is such a happy baby and I hope her videos make everyone happy.” Tzabari added, “For me, it was the first time I’ve been with a newborn, and I thought her actions were normal until people began to tell me they weren’t…I thought this was how babies were but actually her actions aren’t average for a baby of her age.”
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