Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is having her own crash course in foreign affairs two months after Barack Obama's overseas trip. China's Meteorological Administration issued an "urgent red alert", its highest-level warning, as the storm made landfall, even though the Tropical Storm Watch downgraded the storm from category 4 to 3 on a scale of 5. Tropical storms in the area often turn into typhoons from the warm ocean waters. Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and southern China are hit by typhoons during the tropical storms season which lasts from early summer to late autumn. Typhoon Hagupit killed eight people in the Philippines.