This image taken from the Japan Meteorological Agency website shows precipitation over Japan as of 11:15 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2021.

       TOKYO -- The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a heavy rain emergency warning for Hiroshima Prefecture on the morning of Aug. 13, calling on people to be on their utmost guard against life-threatening disasters such as landslides and flooding.

       The warning is the equivalent of Level 5 -- the highest alert. Extremely heavy rains brought by linear precipitation bands have been pounding localized areas in Hiroshima Prefecture, bringing unprecedented levels of rainfall.

       According to the weather agency, heavy rain will also strike wide areas from western to northern Japan through Aug. 14, with western Japan in particular receiving torrential rainfall and thunderstorms. The rain will continue beyond Aug. 15, possibly pushing up the total rainfall even further. The agency is calling on people in those areas to be on their guard against landslides, inundations in low-lying areas, and swollen and flooded rivers.

       A weather front stretching from near the Tsushima Strait to the east of Japan is expected to remain around the Honshu main island of Japan over the next week or so. Due to warm and moist air flowing into the front from the south, the atmospheric conditions will become extremely unstable, keeping the weather front active.

       In the northern Kyushu region, torrential rains are lashing some areas intermittently, bringing record-level rainfall. Some areas are also facing extremely high risks of landslides.

       The maximum forecast precipitation over the 24-hour period up to 6 a.m. on Aug. 14 is: 300 millimeters in the northern Kyushu region that includes Yamaguchi Prefecture; 250 mm in southern Kyushu, the Shikoku and Kinki regions in western Japan, central Japan's Tokai region, and the Kanto-Koshin region that includes the greater Tokyo area, respectively; 200 mm in western Japan's Chugoku region and central Japan's Hokuriku region, respectively; and 120 mm in northeastern Japan's Tohoku region.

       The weather agency is also calling on people to be on their guard against strong gusts including tornadoes, as well as lightning, and is advising people to take shelter inside buildings, among other safety measures, in the event there are signs of developed cumulonimbus clouds approaching.

       (Mainichi)

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