TOKYO: The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a heavy rain emergency warning for the island town of Yoron in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima on Saturday.
Under the warning issued at 2:40 a.m., the agency urged residents to immediately take measures to protect their lives.
In Kagoshima’s Amami region and the northern part of the main island of Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, warm and humid air flowed in between Friday night and early Saturday, causing torrential rain, according to the agency.
The highest-level warning on the country’s five-tier disaster alert system was issued temporarily for part of the Okinawa village of Ogimi, with residents urged to take emergency measures for the protection of their lives.
According to the Kagoshima prefectural government, there had been no reports of injuries in the prefecture as of 9 a.m. Saturday. In Yoron, 15 buildings were flooded above floor level and seven buildings were inundated below floor level, while a landslide was confirmed to have occurred.
Linear precipitation zones, or strings of developed rain clouds that often bring torrential rain, formed over the Amami region and the northern part of Okinawa’s main island.
In Yoron, the amount of rain reached 594.0 millimeters in the 24 hours until 8:20 a.m. Saturday, a record high for the region. Twenty-four-hour rainfall totaled 442.0 millimeters until 11 a.m. in the Okinawa village of Higashi, also a record high. The agency called for maximum caution against landslides, flooding of low-lying areas and swollen rivers.
While the Japanese archipelago is covered by a high pressure system, warm and humid air flowed into the Amami region and the northern part of Okinawa’s main island from the east and southeast due to a low pressure system over waters east of the Philippines and a typhoon over western waters of the Southeast Asian country, according to the meteorological agency.
Agency official Satoshi Sugimoto told a press conference Saturday that it is the first time for the agency to issue a heavy rain emergency warning in November. “Warm and humid air is over the Nansei (southwestern) islands even in this season,” he said, adding that higher sea surface temperatures than usual may also be responsible for the heavy rain.
JIJI Press