Photo/Illutration This image shows linear rainbands circled in red in Fukuoka and Saga prefectures. (Captured from the Japan Meteorological Agency website)

The Kyushu region and neighboring Yamaguchi Prefecture were lashed with heavy rain through the morning of July 19 that forced hundreds of thousands of people from towns across six prefectures to evacuate to safer areas.

The Japan Meteorological Agency is warning that heavy rain is expected in wide areas through July 20 across western and eastern Japan. Officials are calling on residents in the affected areas to be on the alert for landslides and flooding.

Warm and moist air heading toward a low-pressure system with a front on the Sea of Japan has led to extremely unstable atmospheric conditions, according to the JMA.

The JMA issued warnings on the evening of July 18 that torrential rains could hit the Kyushu region and Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Officials later confirmed the presence of rainbands that trigger torrential rain over Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga and Oita prefectures from late evening through the early hours of July 19.

The JMA warned they could continue to develop in the Kyushu region and Yamaguchi Prefecture, but not in the Amami region, through the daylight hours of July 19.

Some areas were hit with a record-breaking deluge over a short period, the JMA said. Early on July 19 over about an hour, about 120 millimeters of torrential rain fell around Kusu and about 110 mm near Hita, both of which are in Oita Prefecture.

According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, evacuation orders were being issued for 225,417 households--about 482,245 residents--in 19 cities and towns across six prefectures, including Fukuoka and Yamaguchi, as of 8:15 a.m. on July 19.

Over the 24-hour period through noon on July 20, the JMA forecasts 250 mm of rainfall for southern Kyushu, 200 mm in northern Kyushu, 150 mm for Kinki and Tokai, 120 mm in Shikoku, 100 mm in Hokuriku and Kanto-Koshin and 60 mm for Chugoku.

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