Rainy season arrives with early intensityーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
the rainy season is here across much of Japan and that doesn’t just mean wet weather dangerous conditions can develop in a flash some places have already been on the alert for potential flooding and mudslides and the season just started help here to help us understand what’s going on and what’s to expect I am joined by our meteorologist Jonathan O so Jonathan um we typically see heavy rain towards the end of the rainy season but this year it seems to be happening earlier especially in western Japan what’s causing this well Mickey what is happening this time around is that we’re seeing an interesting pattern across the Pacific Ocean when it comes to the ocean temperatures that’s producing more like a Linia type of pattern where we will see temperatures that are warmer toward the western side of the Pacific and colder on the eastern side so looking at the map here around uh the areas near the Philippines we’re seeing temperatures that are above average uh for this time of year in terms of the ocean sea surface temperatures and so when that happens it tends to really produce a lot more warmer moisture just as air rises all the air then starts to move and travel toward Japan and we have this um high pressure system that’s located toward the center that’s serving as a steering mechanism and as that happens all that moisture is coming up and hitting the rainy season front it’s kind of like taking a bucket of water and throwing up against the wall and all that water has to go somewhere and that pattern is what has been unfolding uh over the past few days especially that’s we’ve been particularly concerned about that then in light of that pattern what can we expect in terms of the rainy season over the coming weeks well as long as this pattern holds as long as we have high pressure that’s in place helping to steer all that moisture and as long as the sea surface temperatures stay elevated we’re going to see more of this moisture pattern taking place and that is a concern because when all that moisture hits that rainy season front it’s going to continue to help develop over and over along the front where we’re going to be seeing that rain and that’s the reason why we have to be looking out for potential disasters with all of the moisture that’s in place now what’s interesting though is it’s it’s like if we’re walking around together we don’t walk through each other right we have to walk around and so same thing the concern is when we have typhoons or things that will develop it can help push the band of the rainy band up and down and so that could make some changes going forward but we still have to remain vigilant as the rainy season continues of course and speaking of typhoons uh we haven’t heard much about them uh so far this year and is that unusual it is a bit unusual and it’s not that you missed anything it really has been kind of a quieter start in fact we only had the first name storm of this season well on Wednesday and so because of that it means that it was the fifth slowest start to the typhoon season since records began 1951 and so that though even though it may have been a slow start doesn’t mean that that’s going to be the end of the story because like I mentioned we have all this warm air with these storm clouds coming to develop over time and as long as the high pers system which is further west and slightly up north compared to its average location it will continue to help steer that warm moist air toward Japan so as we go into the more warmer months we have to keep an eye out on how this whole thing unfolds because we could be talking about a busier season once we get into the more peer peak period of the uh season right so knowing all this what can people do to stay safe it is so important to know the threats landslide concerns and river with when it comes to swollen rivers heavy rainfall urban flooding all these things are something you should be looking out for especially when you start seeing the rain really taking place so preparation is key so what you want to make sure you do is you know what to do where to go where to evacuate when you move forward make sure you prepare all the gear that you need in order to make sure that you can stay safe and also the five level warning system know about the system and especially don’t wait to evacuate once we hit that level three or higher make sure you get to that safe place as soon as possible and download the NHK World Japan app to get the latest information about the disasters that may be taking place all right thank you very much Jonathan nhk rolls Jonathan O
Large parts of Japan are now in the rainy season, and hazards like floods and landslides can develop in a flash. NHK World meteorologist Jonathan Oh tells us what to expect and how to prepare. #weather #climate #analysis
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