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Guam experienced wind gusts of more than 20 mph and rainfall of up to 2½ inches in some places overnight Wednesday from Tropical Storm Kaemi, which increased slightly in strength as it moved northwest toward Okinawa.

But high pressure might push the sixth storm of the northwest Pacific’s tropical cyclone season well to the south and west of Okinawa toward China, said Capt. Colin Reece, 18th Weather Flight commander at Kadena Air Base.

“It’s a little early to tell,” he said, “but based off early conditions, it would be a similar situation to what happened with Bilis,” a tropical storm that caused wind gusts and rain showers last weekend on Okinawa. “But we’re keeping an eye on it.”

Kaemi, a Korean word for ant, passed more than 200 miles southwest of Guam overnight Wednesday, hitting Andersen Air Force Base with 1 1/2 inches of rain and 18-mph wind gusts, the National Weather Service reported.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Kaemi was 1,311 miles southeast of Okinawa, moving northwest. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center predicted that on its forecast path, the storm would pass 304 miles south-southwest of Kadena at 3 a.m. Monday, with sustained winds of 63 mph and gusts of up to 81 mph, equal to a Category-1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

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