By RYO OYAMA/ Staff Writer
June 17, 2024 at 18:42 JST
A map showing the areas with the expected amounts of rainfall per hour with the yellow areas showing the heaviest before dawn on June 18 (From the Japan Meteorological Agency website)
The Japan Meteorological Agency is warning that torrential rain could drench Shikoku and southern Kyushu from the evening of June 17 to the morning of June 18, creating dangerous conditions across six prefectures.
The agency issued the warning at around 11 a.m. that day, forecasting heavy downpours during a short period and warning that the risk of disaster could be extremely high in impacted regions.
In Kyushu, linear rainbands are expected to develop from the evening of June 17 through the next day over Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, excluding the Amami region.
In Shikoku, these elongated rainbands are expected to form over Kochi, Tokushima, Ehime and Kagawa prefecture in the morning of June 18, according to the JMA.
Linear rainbands are formed when cumulonimbus clouds develop in succession and connect like a line. These clouds cause heavy torrential rains while staying in a fixed area.
The heavy flooding that damaged western Japan in 2018 was caused by these rainbands, as was the July 2020 flooding of the Kumagawa river in Kumamoto Prefecture.
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