Typhoon Bawei's Rain Bands Span France-Sized Area; China Evacuates 1.8 Million

Typhoon Bawei is bearing down on China's eastern coast, with the major city of Wenzhou in its path. The storm has already unleashed torrential rain and strong winds across Japan's southern Ryukyu Islands and skirted northern Taiwan. Chinese authorities have ordered the evacuation of more than 1.8 million people in anticipation of the typhoon's landfall.

While Bawei has weakened over cooler waters as it moves northwest, its "rain bands" are packed with vast amounts of moisture. This extensive precipitation area, reportedly equivalent in size to all of France, poses a significant threat of widespread flooding.

The typhoon's maximum sustained winds are currently clocked at 144 kilometers per hour (90 mph), classifying it as a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. It was located approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of Wenzhou.

Bawei is forecast to make landfall near Wenzhou, a city of about 10 million people, early Sunday morning. Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located, has already evacuated over 1.7 million residents, with an additional 100,000 evacuated from the neighboring Fujian province.