Taipei: The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip, has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) announced.

According to Focus Taiwan, a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm on Wednesday morning. The CWA reported that Wutip had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8 kilometers per hour, with peak gusts reaching 90 kph. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7, ranging from 50 to 61.5 kph, extended up to 80 kilometers from the center.

Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping explained that Wutip will continue moving west-northwest and is expected to turn north near Hainan Island toward Guangdong, China. Although the storm will not directly impact Taiwan, it will push the entire low-pressure belt northward, impacting Taiwan from Wednesday. Kuan forecasted that Hualien and Taitung counties in eastern Taiwan, along with central and southern Taiwan, will experience localized heavy rain, while coastal areas are anticipated to see higher waves.

Kuan added that Wutip is expected to remain a tropical storm and is likely to make landfall soon, making further intensification into a moderate typhoon unlikely. According to Central Weather Administration records, this is the latest in the year that a Pacific storm has formed since 2016. In that year, the western North Pacific experienced 26 typhoons, which was close to average. However, a strong Pacific high-pressure system and unfavorable atmospheric circulation in the first half of the year prevented typhoons from forming before the end of June.

In 2016, the first typhoon was Nepartak, which formed on July 3, while the latest first typhoon on record was Tropical Storm Nichole, which formed on July 9, 1998, the data showed.