Long-Lived Typhoon Noru Hammers Japan With Heavy Rain | The Weather Channel
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Noru swamped Japan with heavy rain after a long journey in the western Pacific.

ByJon Erdman, Brian Donegan and Chris Dolce
August 7, 2017Updated: August 7, 2017, 5:39 pm EDTPublished: August 7, 2017, 5:39 pm EDT


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Noru made its final landfall Monday in central Japan after a long and looping journey through the western Pacific Ocean.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)

Noru was equivalent in strength to a Category 1 hurricane as its center crossed land over Wakayama Prefecture, south of Osaka, about 1 a.m. EDT or 3 p.m. local time Monday.

As of Monday afternoon, local time, more than 25 inches of rain fell in 72 hours in Naze, Japan, on Amami Oshima. In eastern Shikoku, the town of Tokushima measured over 13 inches of rain in just 24 hours through Monday afternoon.

A wind gust of 89 mph was recorded at Cape Muroto, on Shikoku, with sustained winds near 79 mph.



Noru was a tropical cyclone for over two weeks since first becoming a tropical depression on July 20. Here's a recap of what happened before it impacted Japan.

Noru's Rapid Intensification

Noru strengthened from a tropical storm with estimated 70-mph winds (60 knots) to a Category 5 super typhoon with estimated 160-mph winds (140 knots) in just 18 hours from 8 p.m. EDT July 29 to 2 p.m. EDT July 30, according to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center.



It's stint as a Category 5 equivalent didn't last long as Noru weakened on Monday, July 31.

(MORE: Stunning Images of Noru)

Fujiwhara Effect

Prior to the rapid intensification, Noru teamed up with another tropical cyclone named Kulap in a meteorological dance called the Fujiwhara effect.



Named after a Japanese researcher who discovered this in experiments with water in the early 1920s, the Fujiwhara effect details how two tropical cyclones less than 900 miles apart rotate counter-clockwise about one another.

Think of the teacup ride at Disney or the Tilt-a-Whirl at your local county fair, but with tropical systems instead. In the teacup ride, adjacent teacups can not only spin, but revolve about each other.

(MORE: Weirdest Hurricane and Tropical Storm Paths

While Kulap had degenerated to a remnant, one could still pick out its leftover circulation in Himawari-8 visible satellite imagery July 27 south-southwest of Noru.


Typhoon Noru and the remnant of former Tropical Storm Kulap are shown in this visible satellite image from the Himawari-8 satellite on July 27, 2017.

(Japan Meteorological Agency)


Thanks in part to the Fujiwhara interaction, Noru crossed its path from the previous week completing an oval-shaped loop.

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Melissa's strongest maximum sustained winds were found to have reached 190 mph, tying 1980's Hurricane Allen for the strongest sustained winds on record for any Atlantic Basin hurricane. Hours later, it tied 2019's Dorian and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for strongest Atlantic Basin landfall by wind speed when it slammed into Jamaica with 185 mph maximum sustained winds. Storm surge inundation from 7 to 11 feet above normally dry ground swamped coastal areas of southwest Jamaica. Melissa later made a Category 3 landfall in eastern Cuba, then a Category 2 landfall in the southeast Bahamas. At least 95 were killed, 45 of which were in Jamaica and another 43 in Haiti. (Photo: RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)



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