The satellite imagery was outrageous. But now, the ocean is putting on a show of its own.
Super Typhoon Champi, one of the Pacific’s most powerful storms of 2026, is sending enormous surf into Taiwan’s coastline, where authorities have warned of waves exceeding six meters, or roughly 20 feet.
A widely circulated video shows almost cartoonishly enormous walls of water: surf detonating around a lighthouse, whitewater pounding a coastal road as cars pass, and breakers looming behind a city skyline. Check out the almost unfathomable chaos below.
The threat is undeniable. Reuters photographs show heavy seas battering the coast near Keelung, while Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) has issued both land and sea warnings.
As SURFER previously reported, Champi reached Category 5-equivalent strength earlier this week, with satellite images revealing an almost perfectly circular eye. The storm has since weakened, but that’s hardly reassuring.
Related: Watch: Insane Satellite Graphics Reveal Super Typhoon Champi’s Giant Eye
On Thursday, the CWA reported gusts topping 141 mph and a wind field extending approximately 200 miles from the storm’s center.
“The storm’s wind radius is quite large, among the bigger ones in recent years,” CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng told Reuters, warning that slower movement could prolong the damaging winds.
Meteorologists are stressing the historic nature of the cyclone. The New York Times recently designated Champi as “the strongest storm of the year,” warning of its catastrophic potential as it interacts with the island’s steep, mountainous terrain.
“The sheer scale of the wind field and extreme ocean energy makes this a truly historic event,” experts noted.
The consequences are already tragic. One man in his 20s died after being swept out by a powerful current while freediving off Xiaoliuqiu, according to Taiwan’s Coast Guard. Authorities also reported dozens of injuries and evacuations from vulnerable areas.
More than 900 flights have been canceled, and forecasters warned that mountainous parts of northern Taiwan could receive nearly three feet of rain, raising flooding and landslide concerns.
Champi is expected to skirt northeastern Taiwan before turning north toward waters near China and southern Japan, though forecasters have not ruled out landfall.
For now, those 20-foot-wave warnings are a reminder: the storm may be weakening on paper, but its ocean energy is still very much alive.
Related: Unmanned NOAA Drone Boat Battles 65-Foot Waves Inside Hurricane Isaias (Video)
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