A “very strong” typhoon hit Japan’s Pacific coast on Friday with strong winds and heavy rain, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and trains in the Tokyo area and leaving more than 4,000 homes without power.
Located about 300 kilometers south of Tokyo, Typhoon Ampil was packing gusts of up to 216 kph as it moved north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The eye of the typhoon is not expected to make landfall, but instead will head northeast along the coast of Honshu and skirt the Tokyo region, home to about 40 million people, before heading back out into the Pacific starting Saturday.
The JMA called the weather system “very strong,” one notch below its highest category of “severe typhoon,” with maximum wind speeds of 105 knots (120 mph, 195 kph).
The agency warned people to “be on high alert for storms, high waves, landslides and flooding” in a social media post.
The U.S. military’s Typhoon Warning Center is forecasting sustained winds of 110 knots and gusts of 135 knots within 3 p.m. off the coastal region of Chiba, east of the capital.
More than 4,000 homes in prefectures surrounding Tokyo, mainly Chiba, were without power Friday morning due to the typhoon, according to the utility operator.
All Nippon Air canceled 335 domestic and international flights on Friday, with more scheduled for Saturday, affecting about 72,000 passengers.
Japan Airlines has so far cancelled 361 flights, affecting 57,000 customers.
Major sections of Japan’s bullet train network were also due to close on Friday – including the busy section between Tokyo and Nagoya – while Tokyo Disneyland operator said the park would close from 3pm.
The typhoon comes as Japan celebrates the week-long “obon” holiday, during which millions of people return to their hometowns, and days after Tropical Storm Maria dumped record rains in parts of the north.
“We will check our phones to see if there is any information on the Internet and if the typhoon seems OK, then we will go out,” said Isamu Teruya, 47, a visitor from Saga Prefecture who arrived in Tokyo on Thursday.
“If the rain is really heavy, we will stay inside our hotel and relax,” Teruya told AFP.
Typhoons in the region are forming closer to shore, intensifying more quickly and lasting longer on land due to climate change, according to a study published last month.
Researchers from universities in Singapore and the United States analyzed more than 64,000 historical and modeled future storms from the 19th century to the end of the 21st century to reach these conclusions.
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