Tropical Storm "Talim" formed September 9, 2017 in the Pacific Ocean and intensified into a typhoon late September 11. Although its yesterday's track took it over northern Taiwan and into SE China, today's track has drastically changed and Talim is…
At least 11 people have been killed and 14 are still missing as of late Friday, July 7, 2017, after three days of extremely heavy rainfall caused massive floods and landslides in parts of southwest Japan. The rain is still falling throughout the region and many…
As of 10:30 JST (01:30 UTC) Thursday, July 6, 2017, about 450 000 people across western Japan were ordered to evacuate their homes and seek shelter, after extremely heavy rains started early Wednesday, July 6, causing major floods and landslides. As of late…
Japan has more measurable earthquakes than any other country and has over 100 active volcanoes. These both result from Japan being wedged among four major tectonic plates. The tectonics are complicated, but in this animation, IRIS attempted to look at the basic…
During the afternoon hours of May 15, 2017, residents of Okinawa, Japan were surprised to see a funnel cloud looming just off the coast. The waterspout never touched ground and there are no reports of damage or injuries. The phenomenon was associated with a…
After engulfing a large part of northern China, including capital Beijing on Thursday, May 4, 2017, dust storm from Mongolia reached the Korean Peninsula and Japan over the weekend. In China, the storm reduced visibility to less than 1 km (0.62 miles) and forced…
Another powerful eruption took place at Japan's Mount Sakurajima at 18:20 UTC on May 1, 2017 (03:20 JST, May 2). The eruption ejected ash up to 4.9 km (16 000 feet) above sea level toward Kagoshima city where it caused significant ash fall. Sakurajima blew its…
At least 8 high school students have died, more than 30 were injured and several are missing after a massive snow avalanche hit a ski slope in a popular Nasu Onsen ski resort in Tochigi Prefecture early Monday morning, March 27, 2017. A fire department official…
Temperatures in central Tokyo have fallen to near zero °C recently, rare for this time of year, and the city today saw its first November snow in 54 years. According to the JMA, this is the first time the snow had fallen in central Tokyo since 1962 and the first…
The on-going heat wave in Japan intensified during the last week with reported death tolls rising to 55. More than 11 000 people were hospitalized due to consequences of extremely hot weather conditions across the country, the officials reported on August 4. Extremely h
