An online typhoon hazard map has been helping Japanese people learn the risks of strong winds hitting their areas depending on where a typhoon travels.
Created by Hironori Fudeyasu, a Yokohama National University associate professor of meteorology, the map in Japanese is available on the Life Ranger website on weather and can be accessed by smartphone free of charge.
(Screen capture from the Life Ranger website)
The map appears in the wind disaster information section of the website's disaster prevention category. Users can select a town or city and see the locations of typhoon epicenters that are likely to bring the strongest winds to the selected area.
Once users select an area, a circle with a 500-kilometer radius separated into dozens of colored cells appears over a map of Japan.
Each cell shows the direction of wind with an arrow and the strength of wind expected in different shades including red, yellow, green and blue when a typhoon's epicenter falls in one of the cells. Red marks the strongest wind while blue indicates the weakest.
For example, by choosing Yokohama, near Tokyo, a user will learn that strong wind is expected in the Kanagawa Prefecture city when a typhoon passes over Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures located west of the city.
The city of Niigata has an opposite tendency of being hit by strong wind when a typhoon travels to its east, according to the map.
In addition to the diagram, the website also details what kind of damage and accidents people should expect, such as power outages, train service disruptions, and overturning of vehicles.
Fudeyasu created the map by simulating over 800 typhoons using information about past typhoons and coming up with average winds for each area.
"I want people to know the characteristics of the areas where they live" before a typhoon hits, said Fudeyasu.
He said he is continuing his research on the amount of rain, which tends to vary according to the typhoon and is therefore difficult to predict, and is working on a hazard map for tidal waves as well.
Japan is hit by dozens of typhoons every year during summer through autumn and wind and torrential rain brought by them often claim many lives on the archipelago.
The nation is currently bracing for two typhoons this week as its western prefectures reel from torrential rain in July brought by a longstanding seasonal rain front and a typhoon traveling near the archipelago.
Experts point to the importance of learning the risks of different disasters from hazard maps as those created by local authorities accurately predicted the flooding and mudslides triggered by the latest rain.
The flooding of the Mabi area of Kurashiki in Okayama, one of the hardest-hit areas, was mostly predicted in the hazard map, while mudslides in Hiroshima and Ehime prefectures were also in line with hazard map predictions.
More than 220 people lost their lives, mostly in Hiroshima, Okayama and Ehime prefectures in the rain disaster, according to the National Police Agency.
