By TAKUYA MIYANO/ Staff Writer
September 17, 2022 at 14:44 JST
The Japan Meteorological Agency on Sept. 17 called for the highest level of caution, warning that a large and powerful typhoon approaching southern islands could bring “unprecedented strong winds” to a large part of Japan.
JMA officials told an 11 a.m. news conference a special warning may be issued in the evening, citing fierce winds, large waves and high tide surges for Kagoshima Prefecture and the northern Kyushu region as well as a special warning for heavy rain for the southern main island of Kyushu.
Officials also said linear rainbands could hit the Amami islands of Kagoshima and southern Kyushu from the evening of Sept. 17 through the following morning, raising the danger level for flooding and landslides.
If a special warning for Kyushu is issued, it would be the first ever for the region due to a typhoon. Special warnings were issued in 2014 for Miyakojima island and the main Okinawa island and again for the Okinawa region two years later.
As of 10 a.m. on Sept. 17, the 14th typhoon of the season was about 180 kilometers east of Okinawa Prefecture’s Minami-Daitojima island and moving in a northwesterly direction at around 20 kph.
It had a central pressure of 910 hectopascals, with maximum sustained winds of 198 kph near its center and maximum instantaneous gusts of 270 kph. Winds of more than 90 kph were blowing within an area 185 km east and 150 km west of the typhoon center.
The typhoon will bring pounding rain to the Pacific side of a large part of Japan. For the 24-hour period until 6 a.m. on Sept. 18, the JMA was forecasting as much as 400 millimeters for southern Kyushu; 300 mm for the Shikoku and Tokai regions; 250 mm for the Amami islands; 200 mm for Okinawa, northern Kyushu and Kinki regions; and 120 mm for the Kanto-Koshin region.
For Sept. 17, the JMA forecast maximum sustained winds of 108 kph for Okinawa and the Amami islands; and 90 kph for southern Kyushu.
For Sept. 18, the forecast was for maximum sustained winds of 162 kph for southern Kyushu and the Amami islands as well as northern Kyushu; 90 kph for Shikoku; 82.8 kph for the Chugoku region; and 72 kph for Okinawa.
Winds in excess of 72 kph make driving difficult. Wooden homes can collapse when winds exceed 144 kph.
The typhoon was forecast to continue moving in a northerly direction toward Kyushu through Sept. 19 and could make landfall. It will then gradually turn eastward and cut through the main Honshu island.
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