Typhoon Number 18 Approaches

Japan's typhoon season is certainly living up to its name at the moment! The last week has been horrible weather, with wind and rain, and temperatures around 20C, when it was 26C the week before.

Typhoon Number 18 (台風18号), also known as Super Typhoon Melor, is the strongest storm of the year to hit Japan so far and is currently over Kyushu. Its path, unfortunately, follows the exact length of Japan, and is the first typhoon in two years to make landfall. At 3am tomorrow morning it is meant to hit Osaka and the Kansai area, then pass over Nagoya and Tokyo in the morning, and then keep travelling over northern Japan through the afternoon, finally reaching Hokkaido in two days, when it will keep going north-east over the Russian islands.

All we've seen on the news today is reports on its progress. It's actually worrying (as well as exciting for me as a weather enthusiast!) that it is being classed as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane (the strongest being Category 5). This means that it will bring sustained winds of around 60 metres/second, or 140mph, and a storm surge (when sea level rises locally) of around 5 metres. Precipitation is meant to be between 200mm and 500mm, depending on the area of Japan. Tokyo is only meant to receive 200-250mm as it should have weakened to a Category 3 by then, but Tokyo will be on the strong side of the anti-clockwise spin, so could still receive some damage. Some further information about the typhoon here.

All flights from Kyushu airports have now been cancelled, and lots of delays are being forecast for airports across Japan. The biggest worry, it seems from the news, is that they are comparing the path of this typhoon to others, particularly Super Typhoon Vera in 1959, which killed nearly 5,000 and injured 38,921. It's scary!

I spent the last week following the progress on the news and on weather forecasts, hoping that we'd get tomorrow off from Uni! But now, I'd be really surprised if lessons were on. The likelihood is that overground, and some underground, trains will be cancelled and most businesses won't open. Because of that, and the lack of food in my freezer, I'm about to go up to the supermarket and get some food for tomorrow. It's not like emergency supplies (I'm not that paranoid!) but at the very least it won't be very pleasant to go shopping tomorrow, so I'll get my lunch and dinner in advance.

This is yet another reminder that nature in this part of the world is much more volatile than in Britain. But it makes life much more exciting!