As we have documented here,
Typhoon Guchol pushed across Japan this week, dumping heavy rains and gusty winds in areas such as Tokyo, Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula.
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The TRMM satellite passed above weakening typhoon Guchol on June 18, 2012 at 2322 UTC (7:33 pm EDT/US) as
it moved toward Japan's main island of Honshu. The yellow, green and blue areas indicate light-to-moderate rainfall
between 20 and 40 millimeters (.78 to 1.57 inches) per hour. Red areas are considered heavy rainfall at 2 inches/50 mm
per hour and there was none evident in the image. Credit: Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce |
The first tropical storm of the season to make landfall in Japan was a soaker, and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite captured its large area of rainfall as it moved over the big island. The TRMM satellite passed above weakening typhoon Guchol on June 18,
2012 at 2322 UTC (7:33 p.m. EDT) as it moved toward Japan's main island
of Honshu. A precipitation analysis from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar
(PR) instruments showed that the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku
were getting rainfall from Guchol at the time of that orbit. Guchol was
shown by TRMM to be enhancing rainfall in parts of Japan over 500 km
(~310.7 miles) from the typhoon's center. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center
issued their final bulletin on Guchol on June 19 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m.
EDT). At that time, maximum sustained winds were down to 35 knots (40
mph/64 kph). It was located about 110 miles (177 km) west of Yokosuka,
Japan, near 35.3 North and 137.5 East and speeding to the northeast at
37 knots (42.5 mph/68.5 kph)!Guchol re-emerged over the Pacific Ocean as a fully extra-tropical cyclone and will continue to weaken at sea. - PHYSORG.
The typhoon was projected to pass relatively close to the Fukushima nuclear power plant with sustained winds of about 100 mph. The Japanese government had declared that the reactors posed no significant additional risk. However, Robert Alvarez, the former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and
Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at
the U.S. Department of Energy, cast a dangerous warning about the potential impact on Fukushima from any further deterioration.
The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged
and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event
were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic
radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137
released by the Chernobyl accident. - University of California, Berkeley.
Yesterday, Iori Mochizuki of the
Fukushima Diary website, indicates that after the passage of the typhoon, cesium level in sub-drain of reactor2 was increased 10 times higher than usual and that TEPCO comments rain washed radiation to flow into the sub-drain.
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