Japan weather agency warns of rain-caused disasters as heavy downpours batter Kyushu

Tokyo, June 24 (IANS) Japan’s weather agency warned on Wednesday that the risk of life-threatening landslides and flooding was rapidly rising in the Kyushu region as extremely heavy rainfall battered southwestern Japan.

Local residents have been urged to stay vigilant and take immediate steps to ensure their safety.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), an extremely heavy downpour exceeding 50 mm per hour was observed in Nagasaki Prefecture in the early hours of Wednesday. In the hour through 8:30 a.m. local time, Satsumasendai City in Kagoshima Prefecture recorded 70.5 mm of rain, while parts of Kumamoto Prefecture saw 40 mm.

The agency is forecasting 200 millimeters of rainfall in northern Kyushu over a 24-hour period through 6 a.m. Thursday, as a seasonal rain front and a low-pressure system bring torrential downpours.

Over the same period, a total of 250 mm is expected on the main island of Shikoku. Areas in which linear rainbands form could see even more rainfall than projected.

JMA issued a linear rainband alert for the Satsuma area of Kagoshima Prefecture, citing sustained heavy rainfall and warning of a rapidly rising risk of life-threatening landslides and flooding.

Linear rainbands are formed when successive clusters of developed cumulonimbus clouds align, bringing torrential rain. The agency also warned that such phenomena could develop over Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Saga, and Fukuoka prefectures through early Wednesday afternoon, sharply raising the risk of disasters in those areas, Xinhua news agency reported.

Separately, two typhoons have formed south of Japan. The first, currently east of the Philippines, may pass near Okinawa between Thursday and Friday before potentially tracking toward western Japan. The second, near the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, is forecast to move northward and could also approach the Japanese archipelago.