Typhoon Mekkhala Nears Okinawa’s Main Island

Tokyo, June 26 (Jiji Press)–Typhoon Mekkhala moved close to the main island of Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, on Friday morning and is expected to approach the Amami Islands region in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima in the night. The seventh typhoon of the year is seen traveling northeast off the Pacific coasts from the southwestern region of Kyushu to the eastern region of Kanto on Saturday. Meanwhile, Typhoon Higos, the eighth typhoon, headed north over the sea south of Okinawa’s Minamidaito Island on Friday and is expected to approach the Tokai central region and Kanto, and may make landfall on Saturday. Heavy rain is forecast in many parts of the country also because a seasonal front is spanning from eastern to western Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of possible landslides, flooding in low-lying areas and swollen rivers. At 9 a.m. Friday, Typhoon Mekkhala was moving north-northeast at 20 kilometers per hour over the sea some 120 km north of the island of Kumejima in Okinawa. With a central atmospheric pressure of 990 hectopascals, the typhoon recorded a maximum sustained wind speed of 23 meters per second and a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 35 meters per second. The city of Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, part of Kyushu, logged rainfall of 160.0 millimeters in the 12 hours through 9 a.m. Friday, while the city of Maibara in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, recorded 144.0 millimeters. Rainfall in the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Saturday is expected to reach as high as 200 millimeters in Okinawa, Tokai and the Kinki and Shikoku western regions, 180 millimeters in the southern part of Kyushu and the Amami Islands region, 150 millimeters in the Kanto-Koshin eastern and central region, 120 millimeters in northern Kyushu and 100 millimeters in the Chugoku western region. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]