Japan prepares for Super Typhoon Neoguri
Published 10 years ago, updated 6 years ago
Super Typhoon Neoguri, the strongest typhoon so far in the 2014 Western Pacific season, is an extremely dangerous tropical cyclone churning toward Okinawa and potentially other parts of Japan over the next 1-2 days. As reported by www.weather.com
The system became a typhoon – the Western Pacific equivalent of a hurricane – on Friday. Neoguri is currently turning northward about 280 miles south-southwest of Kadena Air Base, the U.S. Air Force installation on the island of Okinawa.
The U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated Neoguri’s sustained winds to be as high as 150 miles per hour as of late Monday morning U.S. time (about midnight Tuesday Japanese time), with higher gusts. This makes Neoguri the equivalent of a high-end Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
When Neoguri’s winds reached an estimated 150 mph earlier Sunday, it earned the “super typhoon” designation from JTWC. Neoguri means “raccoon” in Korean, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report.
Neoguri will continue to spin over very warm waters in a favorable atmospheric environment, allowing it to potentially become a Category 5 tropical cyclone later Monday.
Neoguri had been forecast to pass dangerously close to Okinawa on Tuesday local time (late Monday night/early Tuesday morning U.S. time). The most recent forecasts have the center passing over 100 miles to the west of Okinawa while moving north. Still, that puts the island on the stronger right-hand side of the storm, with hurricane-force winds.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a rare emergency warning, it’s the highest warning, Monday evening to the Miyako Island area, warning of a storm surge up to about 4 feet (1.3 meters) and offshore waves up to 46 feet (14 meters), and asking residents to prepare for the worst.
“We issue special warnings when we anticipate immense damage of a scale only seen every few decades,” an agency official told WSJ.
Read the rest of this report at www.weather.com
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