UPDATE 1 - Thursday, July 2, 2026
5 a.m.
09W is now a tropical storm carrying maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, use this time to prepare, National Weather Service Warning Meteorologist Landon Aydlett said early Thursday morning.
As of 3 a.m. 09W was located 10.1 degrees north, 161.9 degrees east moving northwest. A concerning situation National Weather Service Guam's Warning Coordination Meteorologist Landon Aydlett explains what this means means for Guam and the Marianas.
"This is a very serious threat to all of the Marianas Islands one that everyone across Guam and all of the CNMI need to be watching very closely. This has been making a b-line toward the Mariana Islands ... in the forecast models for nearly a week now and those tracks are holding very steady," Aydlett said.
The tracking puts its to potentially pass most likely near Guam and Anatahan telling Guam News, "I still put the range of possibility from just south of Guam to Pagan," he said. "This could be a potentially devastating hit to any single or several islands."
While nothing "surprising" occurred in the storm's development overnight, Aydlett said, the intensification occurred a "a little bit earlier than projections made Wednesday afternoon.
"The concern now is it's 40 mph, it's a tropical storm and it's only going to get stronger from this point with the likelihood of rapid intensification in the next few days," he said.
On Thursday morning, the storm was roughly two days away.
"That's extremely bad news. This is the last thing we want to be talking about especially as people are still recovering and picking up the pieces from Sinlaku," Aydlett said.
With forward movement holding steady at 8 mph to 12 mph, Aydlett said it's important to note the "shifts and wobbles" and the tracks and forecast expectations.
"One notable difference from yesterday afternoons first bulletin to the second bulletin in the evening was it had slowed down considerably with the onset of conditions moving more into Sunday afternoon versus early Sunday morning."
The current tracking has passage anticipated between Rota and Tinian, Adylett said, that's been holding steady, ... but that could still shift further to the south or to the north. Right now, all of our populated islands are well within that cone of uncertainty."
He urged Guam residents to take Thursday and the coming days to prepare for potential stormy weather.
"We're not talking about expectations yet, that's restricted to timeframes and timelines and so there's a wide degree of uncertainty and possibilities ... over the next several days. But my message to the people across the island is to plan for at least tropical storm force conditions," he said.
This Storm Watch Update is presented by Tenorio-Muna Barnes - Building Guam's future together, Burger King and Mactech Guam.