UPDATE 5:15 p.m. ET: The storm has weakened a bit, but remains a Category 5 Super Typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. Continued weakening is likely overnight on Monday and into Tuesday. The forecast track now takes it far enough off the Japanese coast to diminish concerns there about major impacts.

UPDATE Nov. 3, 7 a.m. ET: Super Typhoon Nuri has maintained its extraordinary Category 5 intensity for at least 12 hours, and remains a 180 mile per hour storm. It is still forecast to intensify slightly to a record tying strength on Monday before beginning to weaken as it moves over colder ocean waters. The storm's path may bring the storm closer to Japan than previously expected, as the country is within the "cone of uncertainty" from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. So some impacts on Japan are possible, even though a direct landfall is less likely.

UPDATE: 10:15 p.m. ET: A video (see below) recorded from the International Space Station on Sunday shows Super Typhoon Nuri moving over the planet in real-time. Discovered by Twitter user Earthspace (‏@earthspace101), the video offers a rare high-definition, top-down view of the powerful weather event.

UPDATED: 5:30 p.m. ET: The Joint Typhoon Warning Center has officially upgraded the storm's intensity to maximum sustained winds of 180 miles per hour. It is forecast to intensify further, to a rare 195 mph storm by Monday. This intensity would be "record matching," according to the center's meteorologists.

The northwest Pacific Ocean basin, home to some of the strongest typhoons on the planet, has done it again. Barely one month after Super Typhoon Vongfong peaked at an intensity that was among the top 30 most intense such storms on record, Super Typhoon Nuri rapidly intensified on Sunday to rival or beat that milestone.

The storm is located over the open ocean, hundreds of miles to the south of Japan, and is forecast to swerve to the northeast, moving out to sea before hitting land. Based on satellite estimates, it now has maximum sustained winds of 180 miles per hour, which is about equal to or stronger than Vongfong was.

See also: The 8 Best Views of Category 5 Super Typhoon Vongfong

However, both Super Typhoon Vongfong and Super Typhoon Nuri likely come in behind the intensity of 2013's Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the city of Tacloban, Philippines, with sustained winds of about 190 mph and a massive storm surge.

The satellite imagery of Super Typhoon Nuri is of a storm straight out of central casting, with an area of towering thunderstorms surrounding a pinhole-like, 15-mile wide eye. The storm intensified rapidly from Saturday to Sunday, going from a Category 2 storm to what will likely be classified as a Category 5 storm in the next advisory that will be issued from the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Water vapor image of Super Typhoon Nuri at about 12 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2014. Image: U-Wisconsin

That center, which is jointly run by the U.S. Air Force and the Navy, typically has a lag time between when a storm rapidly intensifies and when such strengthening is reflected in official advisories. The most recent advisory, as of 12 p.m. ET, shows Super Typhoon Nuri having winds of 150 mph, which puts it just shy of Category 5 status.

An ample supply of warm ocean water, plus atmospheric conditions that encourage intensification, such as light winds at the upper levels of the atmosphere, have aided the storm's explosive growth.

Super Typhoon #Nuri appears to have peaked — based on satellite, 160-knots, T 7.7 ... should be tied or win as strongest of 2014. — Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) November 2, 2014

While the storm should spare Japan from a third direct hit from a typhoon so far this season, it could have implications for U.S. and Canadian weather in one to two weeks from now. Typhoons that move into the northern Pacific, transforming into large, non-tropical storm systems as they do so, can influence the course of the jet stream thousands of miles downstream.

Some computer models are projecting that Nuri will pull off a rare feat — going from one of the most intense tropical storm systems on record to one of the strongest extra-tropical (i.e., non-tropical) storms on record when it reaches Alaska in a week.

Parallel GFS brings Aleutian bomb within 1mb of the deepest extratropical cyclone ever observed. Would be for Pacific pic.twitter.com/20LHNNcF8z — Levi Cowan (@TropicalTidbits) November 3, 2014

The west Pacific has now given birth to six super typhoons so far this season, in part because of unusually high sea surface temperatures in some parts of the region. The average number of super typhoons per season there is four. In contrast, the Atlantic hurricane season has been a sleeper, with the exception of Hurricane Gonzalo, which intensified to Category 4 status at one point before hitting Bermuda as a Category 2 storm on Oct. 18.

Satellite storm intensity estimate trend for Super Typhoon Nuri, showing the rapid intensification from Nov. 2 to Nov. 3. Image: U-Wisconsin/CIMSS

The jet stream is the highway of fast-moving air at jetliner altitudes that steers weather systems from west to east across the Northern Hemisphere, and storms like Super Typhoon Nuri can cause dips or waves to develop along it. This can lead to major storms and cold air outbreaks over the continental U.S. in the early fall to winter.