The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the highest Level 5 emergency landslide warning to the island town of Yakushima in Kagoshima Prefecture, part of the Kyushu southwestern region, at 5:10 a.m. From Friday night to early Saturday, the town was hit by heavy rain from linear precipitation zones that developed intermittently due to the effects of Typhoon Krovanh, the 24th typhoon of this year, and a tropical depression. The warning was downgraded to Level 4 at 11:30 a.m., but the agency urged local residents to remain on high alert for landslides.
In the Onoaida district of the town, 24-hour rainfall reached 490.5 millimeters until 5:30 a.m., hitting a record high for the area. A maximum instantaneous wind speed of 25.9 meters per second was registered shortly after 12:30 a.m. Typhoon Krovanh is located over the sea north of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa while the tropical depression is over the sea southeast of Okinawa, according to the agency.
Warm and moist air flowed into Yakushima from the southeast due to the typhoon and the tropical depression, and collided with easterly winds, causing cumulonimbus clouds to develop, according to Takuya Hosomi, director of the agency’s Forecast Division. Saturday, Typhoon Krovanh was traveling south-southwest over the sea about 170 kilometers north of the Okinawa island of Kumejima at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. It had a central atmospherical pressure of 990 hectopascals, registering a maximum sustained wind speed of 20 meters per second and a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 30 meters per second.
Wind speeds were 15 meters per second or more in areas within about 440 km northwest and 280 km southeast of the center of the typhoon. Meanwhile, a front is stationary near the Pacific coast of eastern and western Japan, and the tropical depression is forecast to move north and come close to the areas Sunday. Heavy rain may strike mainly Pacific areas later Saturday and Sunday as a result, according to the agency.
In the 24 hours until 6 a.m. Sunday, rainfall is forecast to reach up to 200 mm in the southern part of the Kyushu region, up to 180 mm in the Amami Islands region of Kagoshima, up to 100 mm in the Tokai central region and up to 80 mm in Okinawa, the Kinki western region and the Kanto-Koshin eastern to central regions. The Cabinet Office said Saturday that the Kagoshima prefectural government has decided to apply the disaster relief law to the town of Yakushima.
Costs, including for setting up evacuation centers, will be covered by the central and prefectural governments.
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