Super typhoon Nepartak barrels towards Taiwan in July this year. Credit:Via Twitter/@extremestorms Nepartak, which is a Micronesian warrior's name, is dumping rain at the rate of about 19 cm per hour, according to NASA. Media reports indicate the storm has the potential to drop almost a metre of rain on central Taiwan as the storm crosses the island. The intense rainfall is associated with "hot towers" within the storm, which NASA said were reaching as high as 17 km above the ocean.

"These powerful storms near the centre of a tropical cyclone are often seen prior to intensification," NASA said. "Energy released by rainfall into the centre of a tropical cyclone provides the energy upon which tropical cyclones thrive." Nepartak is the first named storm for the north-west Pacific for 2016, the second latest event since records began in 1950, according to Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University in the US. The storm also snapped an all-time record storm drought in the northwest Pacific Ocean, being the first tropical storm or typhoon in the basin for 200 days, according Dr Klotzbach. The North Pacific is the most active ocean for tropical cyclones — known as hurricanes and typhoons in the northern hemisphere — in the world. The storm shortage is also true in the Atlantic Ocean. The US has gone two years since the last hurricane from that ocean made landfall in the US, Dr Klotzbach said.

Typhoon warnings have been posted for portions of eastern Taiwan, the country's Central Weather Bureau said. With three feet of rain possible, the storm has the potential to trigger deadly flash flooding, along with mudslides and rock slides, weather.com warned. Taiwan's military has mobilised thousands of troops, and Premier Lin Chuan was briefed by emergency officials on Wednesday as preparations for the oncoming typhoon ramped up, the China Post said. Premier Lin warned that local governments should double-check the operation of water pumping stations and sewage systems to prevent flooding in low-lying urban areas.

The storm is expected to weaken as it crosses the Taiwan Strait and reaches Fujian province on the Chinese mainland. Authorities there have been dealing with severe weather of their own, with reports of at least 180 people killed in central China after once-in-a-century floods in some areas. The city of Wuhan, home to 10 million people, has had large sections of its transport, water and power supplies disrupted, with the city on alert for further rain, the BBC reported. Follow Peter Hannam on Twitter and Facebook.

Fairfax Media with USA Today