September 30, 2012; 3:54PM,EDT
Tropical Storm Jelawat may no longer be the intense system that pounded the Ryukyu Islands earlier this week; however, the system is still bringing major impacts to Japan.
Jelawat will most likely transition into an extratropical cyclone by the end of the day; however, the storm will continue to bring significant impacts to more populated islands of Japan on Sunday into Monday.
As of Sunday, Jelawat was located over central Honshu after making landfall west of Tokyo. The system has maximum sustained winds over 60 mph with gusts past 90 mph.
The main impacts of Jelawat for this point forward will be substantial rainfall across Honshu, as well as rough surf and occasional damaging wind gusts. Rainfall totals could easily exceed 5 inches in those locations that see consistent heavy rainfall. Local amounts over 10 inches are not out of the question, especially in the mountainous regions.
The rough seas created by the system are likely to cause shipping delays for many of the important shipping ports on the southern coasts of the Japanese islands.
While only a tropical storm right now, Jelawat was at one time one of the strongest tropical cyclones in the western Pacific this season. At one point it was classified a super typhoon, and was the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane.
The system brought flooding rains to Taiwan (over a foot fell in places), followed by making a direct landfall over Okinawa, Japan. A reported 50 or more people were injured and many were left powerless after the typhoon passed.
The western Pacific looks to continue to be active, as a tropical depression northeast of Guam should become a tropical storm by Monday morning, and will likely quickly intensify into a typhoon. Luckily for Japan, the system is currently forecast to recurve well east of Honshu.
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