Typhoon Ampil is set to brush past eastern Japan on Friday as a “very strong” storm — on par with a Category 2 hurricane — threatening to bring damaging winds and torrential rain to a wide area.
On Friday morning, Ampil had prompted storm and heavy rain warnings across the Kanto region as its outer bands moved over land. As of 11:30, over 4,00 homes in Chiba Prefecture were without power, with limited outages in also reported in Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company.
The Meteorological Agency warned in a statement on Friday morning that winds in the Izu Islands could be strong enough to cause some homes to collapse, while in parts of Kanto, winds could lead to injuries due to flying debris or cause trucks to overturn. The agency urged those in affected areas to avoid going out for nonessential reasons.
The seventh named storm of the season by the weather agency is also set to disrupt transportation networks during a peak holiday travel period, with some some railway services, including the bullet train line connecting Tokyo and Nagoya, having decided in advance to suspend or cut back services.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled, and some expressways may face closures.
While the storm is not forecast to make landfall, it will impact the Izu Islands and the Kanto-Koshin, Tohoku and Tokai regions on Friday at its peak intensity, with the weather agency warning of fierce winds, high waves, landslides and flooding.
On Friday, the Izu Islands and parts of the Kanto region could see maximum sustained winds of 144 kph and gusts of up to 216 kph, while the Tohoku region could see maximum sustained winds of 108 kph and gusts of up to 216 kph, the weather agency said. Parts of the Tokai region cold also see strong winds.
Many areas are also expected to see heavy rain through Saturday, with up to 300 millimeters of of rainfall possible in the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Saturday in Kanto-Koshin and 200 mm possible in the same time frame in Tohoku. Heavy rain could continue into Saturday in Tohoku.
As of 11 a.m. Friday, Typhoon Ampil, categorized by the weather agency as “very strong,” was 110 km east of Hachijojima, moving north at 20 kph. It had a central atmospheric pressure of 950 hectopascals, with maximum sustained winds at its center of 162 kph and gusts of up to 216 kph. The storm is forecast to strengthen further on Friday as it moves closer to the coast of Chiba Prefecture on Friday.
As Japan approaches the end of the Bon summer holiday, Ampil is wreaking havoc on transportation networks, stranding travelers returning home. The Tokaido Shinkansen has been suspended for the entire day between Tokyo and Nagoya, while services on the Tohoku, Yamagata, and Joetsu shinkansen lines have been scaled back, according to JR East.
Robert Speta, a meteorologist and typhoon expert, said the storm’s track means Japan is avoiding a worst-case scenario, noting that the most dangerous winds are limited to a very small inner core.
“Even the difference of a few kilometers from the eyewall could be the difference between 150 kph or 50 kph,” Septa said, describing possible wind speeds. “Thus that destructive inner core staying offshore makes a massive difference.”
But Speta warned that the areas of the coast could still see damaging winds, noting that if the storm veers even slightly to the west of its current track, more areas could see damaging winds.
“The way I like to describe a storm that is skirting the coast like this is imagine you are standing on the side of a highway as semitrucks are flying by at over 100 kph,” Septa said. “You are more or less ‘safe’ as long as the truck stays on the road. But if it changes course even just a little bit toward the curb where you are standing, it can make all the difference in those impacts.”