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Tropical Storm 05W (Dianmu), # 7

11:30 a.m. Tuesday -- Tropical Storm Dianmu keeps heading north toward the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula, and is forecast to knife its way between Kunsan Air Base and Chinhae Naval Base around mid-day Wednesday.

No weather advisories or accelerated Tropical Cyclone Conditions of Readiness were posted on the U.S. Forces Korea Web site as of 11 a.m. Tuesday. Still waiting word from authorities whether they're planning to move assets out of either location in advance of the storm.

USFK's Web site's weather page calls for Kunsan to feel the effects of Dianmu from today into Thursday morning. Areas III and IV should experience "extensive" showers and possible T-storms on Wednesday. Everywhere else should be cloudy with rain and possible T-storms.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dianmu was about 450 miles south-southwest of Seoul, rumbling north at 15 mph packing 58-mph sustained winds and 75-mph gusts, below typhoon strength, but still a pretty significant tropical storm.

Landfall is forecast for around 6 a.m. Wednesday over Mokpo on Korea's southwestern coast. Dianmu should pass about some 60 miles southeast of Kunsan and 60 miles west-northwest of Chinhae, still packing a pretty powerful punch, 58-mph sustained and 75-mph gusts at its center.

Dianmu should move over the Korean peninsula in relatively short order, then back out over the East Sea/Sea of Japan by early evening Wednesday.

Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan is next on the itinerary, but by then Dianmu is forecast to have significantly weakened, 35-mph sustained winds and 46-mph gusts as it passes Misawa 15 miles to its south around midnight Thursday.

Next update around midnight.

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About the Author


Dave Ornauer has been with Stars and Stripes since March 5, 1981. One of his first assignments as a beat reporter in the old Japan News Bureau was “typhoon chaser,” a task which he resumed virtually full time since 2004, the year after his job, as a sports writer-photographer, moved to Okinawa and Ornauer with it.

As a typhoon reporter, Ornauer pores over Web sites managed by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center as well as U.S. government, military and local weather outlets for timely, topical information. Pacific Storm Tracker is designed to take the technical lingo published on those sites and simplify it for the average Stripes reader.