Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O piloto acaba de reportar a turbulência forte. - The pilot has just reported the strong turbulence.

This lesson is about using já for the immediate future, but this sentence uses acaba de. How would we rewrite this to mean the pilot is about to report it right now using já?

You would change the verb to the present tense and add já, like this: O piloto já reporta a turbulência forte. While acaba de reportar means it just happened a second ago (immediate past), já reporta uses the pragmatic future aspect to mean the pilot will report it right this second.

Why does this sentence use the present tense acaba when the English translation says has just reported in the past?

The Portuguese structure for the immediate past is acabar de (in the present tense) plus an infinitive verb (here, reportar). You can think of it literally as the pilot finishes reporting, which Portuguese uses idiomatically to mean the action was just completed a moment ago.

Is reportar the most natural word to use here, or is it just a literal translation from English?

Reportar is perfectly natural here, especially in aviation, technical, or journalistic contexts. For more everyday situations, you might more commonly hear comunicar or informar sobre.

Can forte be placed before the noun to make a forte turbulência?