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Typhoon Hagibis slams Japan


Typhoon Hagibis was a large and powerful tropical cyclone that was considered to be the most devastating typhoon to hit the Kantō region of Japan since Typhoon Ida in 1958. Hagibis caused additional impacts in Japan, after Faxai struck the same region one month prior. The nineteenth named storm and the ninth typhoon of the 2019 Pacific typhoon season, Hagibis developed from a tropical wave located a couple hundred miles north of the Marshall Islands on October 2. The system reached tropical storm status late on 5 October as it travelled westward. Soon afterwards, Hagibis underwent a period of rapid intensification, which brought Hagibis to its peak intensity on 7 October. After maintaining the peak intensity for about three days, Hagibis began to weaken due to less favorable environment. On 12 October, Hagibis made landfall at Izu Peninsula as a Category 2–equivalent typhoon. Hagibis became extratropical on the following day.


Still recovering from the impacts of Faxai, Hagibis caused widespread damage across Japan, particularly in the Kantō region. As of 14 October, 40 people have been confirmed dead and 16 went missing in Japan. Early on 12 October, Hagibis triggered a tornado in Ichihara City. About half an hour before Hagibis made landfall, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chiba Prefecture, worsening the condition even more. On 2 October, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center began monitoring a tropical disturbance that was situated north of the Marshall Islands. On the next day, the JTWC issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert. On 4 October, both the JTWC and the Japan Meteorological Agency began issuing advisories on Tropical Depression 20W.


On 5 October, the depression rapidly intensified into a tropical storm, and was issued the name "Hagibis" by the JMA. Sea surface temperatures and low wind shear allowed Hagibis to strengthen further, and on 6 October, Hagibis became a severe tropical storm. On 7 October, while continuing to move west, Hagibis explosively intensified and became a super typhoon in the space of only a few hours, developing a pinhole eye. As it approached the uninhabited areas of the Mariana Islands, strong convective activity as a result of extremely favourable conditions saw Hagibis became a very powerful Category 5-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with one-minute sustained wind speeds of 260 km/h (160 mph). The National Weather Service also began issuing advisories for its areas of responsibility, with a typhoon warning issued for Garapan and Tinian, and tropical storm advisories issued for Sinapalo and Hagåtña. Hagibis passed over the Mariana Islands at 15:30 UTC on 7 October at peak intensity, with 10-minute sustained winds of 195 km/h (120 mph) and a central pressure of 915 hPa (27.02 inHg).


 After passing the Mariana Islands, Hagibis began an eyewall replacement cycle, which caused the rapid intensification phase to end. As the primary eyewall began to erode,  the JTWC downgraded the system slightly to a high-end Category 4 system at 00:00 UTC on 8 October. Several hours later, Hagibis re-intensified into a Category 5 equivalent system upon completing the eyewall replacement cycle. Hagibis began to weaken on 10 October, as sea surface temperatures decreased and wind shear increased. Mild strengthening was forecast shortly after Hagibis downgraded to a category 3 typhoon, but that failed to occur as it neared land and its outer rainbands began to erode.







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