Typhoon Surigae began approaching Okinawa Prefecture and the Amami islands on Monday with a projected path for the storm showing a northeast trajectory toward the Kanto region, which is still recovering from last week’s Typhoon Dujuan. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) classified Surigae, the year’s 26th named storm, as a very strong typhoon, and the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) upgraded it to a super typhoon on Sunday night. It had originally formed east of the Philippines last week.
A very strong typhoon is defined by the JMA as having a maximum wind speed of between 85 (157 kilometers per hour) and 105 knots, while the JTWC calls a wind intensity of over 130 knots a super typhoon. Either figure is higher than Dujuan’s peak intensity and would represent a level of strength that could cause devastating amounts of damage, with the JMA saying that wind speeds of over 140 kph can topple telephone poles and trees and destroy houses. However, the typhoon is not expected to directly hit Okinawa Prefecture, although the JMA still warned against high waves and violent winds there.
Surigae is predicted to move east-northeast initially away from Japan before approaching the Izu Islands and potentially making landfall in the Tokai and Kanto regions around Thursday, by which time the typhoon will likely have weakened into a severe tropical storm. The wind intensity from such a storm could still be strong enough to cause some damage and make everyday activities like walking and driving difficult. Surigae would hit an area still recovering from Typhoon Dujuan, which caused extensive damage and killed at least 10 people in Chiba, Miyazaki and Kanagawa prefectures.
Landslides damaged hundreds of houses, and flooding led to record-breaking water levels and agricultural destruction in Chiba Prefecture, while many roads and public transportation services were shut down during the storm. Thousands of households were also left without water, of which around 470 were still undergoing outages as of Monday. The land ministry warned that Surigae could lead to heavy rain warnings in western and eastern Japan later this week.
This would maintain the historic amounts of rainfall seen this month, when the Kanto-Koshin region set a record for September rainfall and rainfall over a 24-hour period during Dujuan’s peak on Sept. 21. The region is also experiencing a record precipitation streak. Monday was the 33rd straight day that Tokyo saw rain, which tied a record set in the summer of 2019.
With rain forecast in Tokyo for the next few days, it is likely the record will be broken on Tuesday.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
