Typhoon!

It's my first experience of a real Japanese typhoon! It's typhoon number 11 (台風11号), which just means that it's the 11th typhoon to reach Japan this year.

This is where my Geography geekiness comes in handy! The weather has changed over the last three days to reflect the course of the weather system.

On Saturday it was brilliant sunshine, with clear blue skies and temperatures in excess of 30C. By Saturday evening it had clouded over a bit, and the night was very hot and sticky, as the heat of the day was trapped over Tokyo.
Sunday morning was also cloudy and humid, and then light rain broke out in the afternoon. The humidity rose to around 90% but the temperature dropped from high-20s to mid-20s.
Then today (Monday) was awful! The heavens opened from around 10am to 4pm. The rain was extremely strong at times, as was the wind. The temperature dropped to low 20s, and I was actually cold! It's August people! What's going on?

There was high humidity (about 96%) and the sky was low and grey. The rain made visibility very poor. I suppose I should be used to it by now, being British, but after the heat of the last few days since arriving, it was quite a shock to the system!

My friend Rob lost his umbrella to the wind, and had to throw it away and buy a new one to get home under.

In the evening we saw some Japanese news on the TV in the lounge, and there were reports from Chiba perfecture's (千葉県) eastern coast of huge waves crashing against the beaches and high winds causing damage. Chiba is the prefecture directly east of Tokyo, where Tokyo International Airport (Narita) is located, and where the eastern reaches of Greater Tokyo finally end.

The typhoon won't hit land fully, but instead will swing north this evening and follow Japan's north-eastern coast before dissipating. This typhoon wasn't a bad one, but some can destroy entire towns and infrastructure, and kill. So far only three people have been injured, and no deaths reported, as this news report describes.

It's been very interesting for me to see a typhoon, as I missed Japan's typhoon season (August-October) last year. The weather is due to return to normal over the next couple of days. The forecast says that the clouds should clear by noon tomorrow and temperatures will return to high-20s, and might hit 30C again later in the week.

And that concludes マイルズの天気予報!