Typhoon Shanshan on Tuesday intensified into a “very strong” storm — the Meteorological Agency’s second highest level within a three-tier classification system — as it moved northward, with severe weather expected to hit the Amami Islands before a possible landfall in southern Kyushu on Thursday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the storm, widely reported as Typhoon No. 10 in Japan, was moving northwest at a slow pace, positioned about 90 kilometers east of the city of Amami in Kagoshima Prefecture. The typhoon’s central pressure measured 950 hectopascals, with maximum sustained winds of 162 kilometers per hour and gusts reaching 216 kph.
The Meteorological Agency forecasts that warm, moist air surrounding the typhoon will create unstable atmospheric conditions, leading to thunderstorms. Up to 400 millimeters of rain is expected in the 24 hours through noon Wednesday on the Amami Islands, with up to 300 mm in southern Kyushu and 200 mm in the Tokai region in the same period.
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