Typhoon Mekkhal Seen Approaching Eastern Japan Sat. Night

Tokyo, June 27 (Jiji Press)–Typhoon Mekkhal is expected to move close to the Kanto region of eastern Japan on Saturday night after traveling northeast over the sea off the Shikoku western region earlier in the day. The seventh typhoon of the year is then expected to turn into an extratropical cyclone. Meanwhile, Typhoon Higos, the eighth typhoon, increased its speed and traveled off the Boso Peninsula in Kanto on Saturday morning. It became an extratropical cyclone off Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, at 9 a.m. Also with a seasonal rain front spanning from Shikoku to Kanto, areas mainly on the Pacific side of the country had heavy rains and strong winds. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of violent winds, high waves and heavy rains. East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, decided to cancel train operations on some sections of the Tokaido, Sobu, Uchibo, Sotobo and other lines throughout the day. A maximum instantaneous wind speed of 29.3 meters per second was recorded on the remote Tokyo island of Izu Oshima in the Pacific around 4:35 a.m. and 29.1 meters per second in the city of Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture, part of Kanto and adjacent to Tokyo, around 5:45 a.m. Rainfall in the 12 hours through 7:30 a.m. reached 149.0 millimeters in Choshi, Chiba, hitting a record high in the city for June. At 11 a.m., Typhoon Mekkhal was moving east-northeast at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour over the sea some 150 km south of Cape Muroto in the city of Muroto in Kochi Prefecture, part of Shikoku. With a central atmospheric pressure of 992 hectopascals, the typhoon recorded a maximum sustained wind speed of 20 meters per second and a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 30 meters per second. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]