According to a bulletin from the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC), at 7 am on August 2, Typhoon Dolphin was over the north-west Pacific, about 1,260 kilometres east of Japan's Iwo To island.
Maximum sustained winds near the storm's centre were about 230 kilometres per hour, with gusts of 278 kilometres per hour. Waves around the eye wall reached as high as 16.5 metres.
With one-minute average winds of 230 kilometres per hour, the JTWC downgraded Dolphin from a super typhoon to a major typhoon equivalent to a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Despite weakening, Dolphin remains an exceptionally dangerous cyclone, bringing strong winds and violent seas across a radius of several hundred kilometres from its centre.
South Korea's meteorological agency, the KMA, said on the morning of August 2 that maximum winds near the storm's centre were about 180 kilometres per hour. The storm was moving west-north-west at 26 kilometres per hour.
According to the KMA, the radius of winds of 54 kilometres per hour or more extended about 420 kilometres, narrowing to around 320 kilometres in the south-western sector. Winds of 90 kilometres per hour or more extended about 140 kilometres from the centre. The figures show that Dolphin's circulation remains very broad, although its intensity has eased compared with previous days.
During the afternoon and evening of August 2, Dolphin was forecast to continue moving west-north-west at 24-26 kilometres per hour.
The projected track of Typhoon Dolphin and a tropical depression east of the Philippines (Photo: Zoom Earth).
The JTWC said maximum winds near the storm's centre could ease to about 222 kilometres per hour by the evening of the same day and to around 213 kilometres per hour by the morning of August 3.
After that, the storm is expected to gradually turn westward, passing through waters south of Japan's Ogasawara islands.
By the morning of August 4, maximum winds near the centre are forecast to fall to about 195 kilometres per hour.
The KMA forecast also showed Dolphin weakening slowly in the coming days. Wind speeds could fall to about 176 kilometres per hour on August 3, around 169 kilometres per hour on August 4-5, and 155-162 kilometres per hour on August 6-7.
Despite losing strength, the storm is expected to maintain a large circulation as it approaches waters south of Japan and the Ryukyu islands.
The JTWC and KMA are broadly aligned in their forecasts for Dolphin's track. By August 7, the storm's centre could be near Japan's Okinawa islands and east of Taiwan.
On this track, international meteorological agencies do not currently forecast Dolphin entering the East Sea within the next five days. However, the storm's path and intensity could still change as it approaches the western edge of the subtropical ridge.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, or JMA, on the morning of August 2, Typhoon Dolphin had weakened to category 15, with winds of 166-183 kilometres per hour and gusts above category 17, or 240 kilometres per hour.
The JMA forecast that in the coming days Dolphin would continue moving fairly quickly west-north-west towards waters east of China.
The JMA also said on the morning of August 2 that a tropical depression over waters east of the Philippines was packing winds of around category 7, or 50-61 kilometres per hour, with gusts to category 9.
The tropical depression was more than 300 kilometres east of Luzon island in the Philippines.
The JMA forecast that over the next 24 hours, the tropical depression would move slowly west-north-west and could strengthen into a storm.
By 6 am on August 3, the storm's centre is forecast to be over waters east of the Philippines, with maximum winds near the centre at category 8, or 62-74 kilometres per hour, and gusts to category 10.
Over the following 24-48 hours, the storm is expected to move little and could weaken back into a tropical depression.
