Super Typhoon Sinlaku Threatens Guam and Northern Mariana Islands with 175 mph Winds

Super Typhoon Sinlaku, packing sustained winds of about 175 mph, closed in on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands early Tuesday local time, threatening U.S. Pacific territories with destructive winds, flash flooding and seas forecast as high as 40 feet.

The U.S. National Weather Service warned that typhoon conditions were expected to intensify through April 14 into April 15 across the Northern Mariana Islands, particularly Saipan, Tinian and Rota. Local summaries of NWS forecasts cited worst-case wind gusts up to roughly 180 mph and seas of 30–40 feet, prompting authorities to order residents to stay inside and triggering federal emergency declarations and advance deployments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Sinlaku, designated 04W by the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center, reached Category 5–equivalent strength around 3:30 a.m. UTC on April 13, with NASA estimating sustained winds near 280 kph (about 175 mph). Satellite analysts reported a clear eye and dense central overcast, hallmarks of a rapidly intensifying storm.

Forecast tracks from the JTWC, Japan Meteorological Agency and the National Weather Service showed Sinlaku moving northwest to north-northwest, bringing its core close to the Northern Mariana Islands on April 14 local time. While exact landfall locations remained uncertain, forecasters agreed that the islands lay in a high-impact corridor.

By Monday, outer rainbands were already sweeping across the region. Weather reports said Guam had seen heavy rain and tropical-storm-force gusts, with a daily rainfall record broken at Guam International Airport. On Tuesday morning local time, Sinlaku’s outer bands were delivering heavy rain to Saipan, Tinian and Rota as the storm’s center drew nearer.

“This storm is a serious threat to the island of Guam,” AccuWeather international meteorologist Tyler Roys said. He added that “Flash flooding could become a major issue on Guam because Sinlaku may deliver heavy rain in a short time, and saturated ground can also raise the risk of mudslides.”

In Guam, the government activated its Tropical Cyclone Conditions of Readiness, a staged alert system, and the Legislature passed a $25 million emergency response bill ahead of the storm. The island’s Joint Information Center published public safety directives, including a blunt instruction: “REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL COR 4 IS ANNOUNCED.”

In the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Gov. David M. Apatang declared a state of emergency and typhoon conditions in early April. He issued Executive Order 2026-005, effective April 11, imposing a territorywide freeze on prices for goods and housing rentals, with criminal penalties for violations, to deter price gouging as residents stocked up ahead of Sinlaku.

At the federal level, the president approved pre-landfall emergency declarations for both Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, unlocking disaster assistance tools under the Stafford Act and authorizing FEMA to move aid into place before the storm hits. FEMA pre-deployed staff and coordinated with other agencies for potential search-and-rescue, logistics and communications support.

“We are ready to respond to this event,” FEMA regional administrator Robert Fenton said.

The Associated Press reported that the U.S. military moved cutters out of Apra Harbor on Guam and put bases into readiness status, underscoring both the humanitarian and strategic stakes. Guam is home to major U.S. air and naval installations seen as key to U.S. operations in the Pacific.

About 170,000 people live on Guam and roughly 50,000 in the Northern Mariana Islands, mainly on Saipan, Tinian and Rota. Many residents in the Northern Marianas live in less robust housing and rely heavily on imported food, fuel and other essentials, raising the risk of prolonged disruptions to power, water and supplies if infrastructure is damaged.

The region is still recovering from Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, which caused extensive damage in the Northern Mariana Islands. That recent experience has heightened anxiety over Sinlaku’s potential to tear roofs from homes, down power lines and trigger landslides and mudslides in steep terrain.

NWS products and local reports warned of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and intense rainfall, along with the potential for extended outages of electricity, water service and telecommunications. Authorities prepared shelters and anticipated port and airport disruptions, though detailed closure and damage information was not yet available as the storm approached.

Meteorologists say Sinlaku stands out not only for its intensity but also for its timing. In the northwestern Pacific, the most powerful typhoons usually form between June and November. NASA and climate analysts described Sinlaku as one of only a small number of storms to reach Category 5 strength so early in the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the second Category 5–strength tropical cyclone globally in 2026, after Tropical Cyclone Horacio in February.

Recent years have seen a handful of unusually intense early-season storms in the basin, including Super Typhoon Surigae in April 2021, previously noted as the strongest April typhoon on record. Some forecasters have linked Sinlaku’s development to large-scale patterns associated with El Niño, which can shape where and how tropical cyclones form and intensify in the Pacific. Scientists emphasize that determining whether climate change played a role in any single storm requires dedicated attribution studies.

As Sinlaku bore down on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands on Tuesday, emergency officials stressed that the full extent of its impact would not be clear until after the core of the storm passed and assessments could begin. For now, they urged residents to shelter in place, heed evacuation and safety instructions, and prepare for the possibility that recovery from one of the Pacific’s most powerful early-season typhoons could take weeks or longer.