Typhoon Meranti blasted Taiwan, and now it’s headed to China

On Tuesday morning, Super Typhoon Meranti became the strongest storm on Earth so far in 2016. Inside the eye wall, the wind roared at a constant 185 mph. That made Meranti the second-strongest typhoon on record in the Northwest Pacific. The only storm that was stronger — by a mere 5 mph — was Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines in 2013.

Meranti would have been the equivalent of a Category 6 hurricane on Tuesday, if the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale extended beyond five. (It doesn’t.)