Typhoon Talas threatens to hit Pacific coast of Japan over long weekend

TOKYO -- A tropical depression over the sea south of Japan has developed into the 15th typhoon of the year and is on course to approach the country's Pacific coast, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) confirmed at 9 a.m. on Sept. 23.

Typhoon Talas is expected to approach Japan's Kii Peninsula, and the Tokai and Kanto regions on the night of Sept. 23 through Sept. 24, and weaken into an extratropical low-pressure system by the morning of Sept. 25.

Heavy rain is predicted in the Kinki and Tokai regions and part of the Kanto-Koshin region that includes Tokyo for the three-day weekend starting on Sept. 23, and the JMA is calling on people to be cautious about strong winds, lightning and high waves.

The typhoon was moving northward over the sea approximately 190 kilometers south-southeast of Cape Muroto in western Japan's Kochi Prefecture at a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour as of noon on Sept. 23. It had a central atmospheric pressure of 1,000 hectopascals, with a maximum sustained wind speed near its center of about 65 kph, with peak gusts at 90 kph. Strong winds at a speed of 54 kph or more were recorded within a 220-km radius to the north and a 185-km radius to the south of the storm's center.

In the 24-hour period up to 6 a.m. on Sept. 24, the typhoon is forecast to bring up to 200 millimeters of rainfall to the Kinki and Tokai regions and up to 120 mm to the Kanto-Koshin region.

(Japanese original by Toshiaki Uchihashi, Tokyo City News Department)