Sunday, September 03, 2006

Headin' My Way?

News on Super Typhoon Ioke is a little sparse at the moment, but it may be heading toward Tokyo. It reached Cat 5 for a while, but inevitably would be weaker by the time it arrived here.

It apparently flattened Wake Island yesterday, and should be pounding Minami Torishima about now, way southeast of Tokyo. Yesterday's path prediction showed it likely to pass through the Ogasawara Islands, toward Shikoku & Kyushu. As of 6:00a.m. this morning, though, the projected path has shifted far to the north, with a probable passage just east of Tokyo and landfall in northern Honshu, according to the most recent typhoon map from the Japan Weather Agency.

This might interfere with my plans to fly to the U.S. on Wednesday...

An article in today's Daily Yomiuri says that monitoring of hurricanes crossing the International Date Line to become typhoons began in 1951. Only six were recorded up to 1990, and ten have been recorded since then. The article quotes a meteorologist from the University of the Air, which is a wonderful name for a school.

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