Authorities in Taiwan urged residents to stock up on supplies and brace for what could be the most powerful typhoon to hit the island since 2024.
Bavi, about 1000km at its widest point or roughly the width of France, is forecast to skirt northern Taiwan before making landfall in China's eastern Fujian province on Saturday evening, according to China's National Meteorological Centre.
China is still battered from Typhoon Maysak, which wreaked havoc across the southwestern region of Guangxi.
At least 39 people died due to the flooding caused by the storm in Guangxi, local officials told a news conference on Thursday, and nine people were missing.
Bavi is set to be the largest storm by size to hit Taiwan since 1987, Jason Chang, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration forecaster, told Reuters, adding that storms of this size have been "fairly rare in recent years".
China, the world's second-largest economy, along with neighbouring Japan and Taiwan, are increasingly exposed to destructive weather events that scientists link to climate change.
The year 2026 is of particular concern because the expected emergence of El Nino could drive up temperatures and help fuel more frequent and intense typhoons.
If Bavi maintained its forecast intensity, it would be the most powerful typhoon since Super Typhoon Kong-rey in 2024, according to AccuWeather, a commercial weather forecasting service.
"Some loss of wind intensity is anticipated starting Thursday, but Bavi will remain a dangerous storm as it impacts Taiwan and eastern China later Friday into Monday," according to Jason Nicholls, AccuWeather international forecasting expert.
In Taiwan's northeastern port town Suao, hundreds of fishing boats packed the harbour seeking shelter from the coming storm, as residents queued for sandbags from the local authorities and farmers rushed to harvest rice while the weather held.
Roughly 100km southwest of Suao, in Japan's Okinawa prefecture, residents were warned by the country's meteorological agency to remain on high alert on Friday and Saturday for violent winds, landslides, flooding and storm surges.
The remnants of Typhoon Maysak spawned at least two inland tornadoes and major flooding in China's central Hubei province.
"We should pay much attention to Bavi as it has spent a long time intensifying over the open Pacific, extracting energy from warm ocean and accumulating large amounts of moisture," said Xiangbo Feng, research scientist in tropical cyclones at Imperial College London.
"When it would make landfall or get close to coastal regions, the damage could be catastrophic. A small change in Bavi's track could have a significant influence," Feng said.
