Typhoon Wipha May Threaten Tokyo and Fukushima

[peoli]

Typhoon Wipha, which is currently a storm with 110 mph winds located several hundred miles south of Kyoto, Japan, appears poised to sideswipe, or possibly even make a direct hit on Japan in the coming days. The storm is expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain, and high waves to the Japanese coast from Tokyo northward, including the ailing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where cleanup efforts have already hit serious roadblocks.

Current forecasts show Wipha making landfall, or coming close to making landfall, near Tokyo on Oct. 16 local time, while transitioning from a weakening tropical cyclone into a hybrid storm, with characteristics of both a tropical storm and an extratropical system. Those characteristics are similar to some of the features that Hurricane Sandy had when it devastated the U.S. East Coast nearly a year ago this month. Wipha could bring an expanded area of high winds and pounding surf along with several inches of rain to heavily populated areas of Japan, including the vulnerable nuclear plant that was incapacitated by the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The tsunami led to a series of cascading engineering failures, culminating in a triple nuclear meltdown at the plant in the worst accident at a nuclear power plant since Chernobyl in 1986.

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at WeatherBell Analytics, a private forecasting firm, told Climate Central that the storm poses a "huge flood potential" for the Fukushima area. "Deep convection on the westward flank of the storm . . . plus the topography of Japan means heavy rain for the coastline regardless of the Typhoon's track,” he said in an email message. "Wipha is extra-large size-wise," Maue said, predicting it will grow and strengthen as it makes its closest pass to Japan, aided by strong jet stream winds in the upper atmosphere.

Even in the absence of landfalling typhoons, cleanup work at Fukushima has hit numerous serious roadblocks, with recent discoveries that the plant has been leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. A team of 16 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency is currently in Japan to visit the plant and advise the Japanese government on how to deal with the challenge of storing large amounts of radioactive material on site.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/typhoon-wipha-may-threaten-tokyo-and-fukushima-16610

[Art_from_Ark]

1. In Japan, it's known as "Typhoon Number 26"

It's supposed to make landfall here in the Kanto area (Tokyo and surrounding area) just a few hours from now on the morning of the 16th (Japan time), with heavy rains and winds gusting up to 90mph. The last time we had such dire warnings was when Number 18 came to Japan about a month ago. Surprisingly, there were strong winds in Tokyo, but nothing to speak of in my city 40 miles away, and almost no rain, but there were heavy rains in Fukushima.

[lonestarnot]

2. Yikes.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. The typhoon is passing through the North Kanto area as I type this

There have been several power outages, some evacuation orders (a few have since been lifted), some minor flooding (at least minor around here). Some areas have seen very strong winds, especially along the coast.

[peoli]

4. thanks for the update

[Art_from_Ark]

5. I've been scouring Fukushima news sources for information about the storm there

From what I've been able to glean so far, there were strong winds, heavy rains, and high waves in the area of the reactors (Minami Souma City). TEPCO released some water that had accumulated within embankments set up around radioactive water storage tanks.

http://www.minpo.jp/news/detail/2013101611510

In related news, the governor of Fukushima visited the Dai-ichi site yesterday and requested TEPCO to strengthen its measures to deal with typhoons and prevent a recurrence of the water tank leakage that occurred recently. TEPCO responded by saying that its measures would include hiring more workers.

http://www.minpo.jp/news/detail/2013101611527

Also, the Fukushima legislature is sending a delegation to the United States to tour Three Mile Island, etc., to gather information about dealing with nuclear disasters.

http://www.minpo.jp/news/detail/2013101611524