TOKYO, Aug 30 (APP/AFP): A strong typhoon was on
course Tuesday for a direct hit on northeastern Japan, with authorities warning of heavy rain and high waves along the Pacific coast.
Typhoon Lionrock was 170 kilometres (105 miles) east of the city of Choshi, as of 9 am (0000 GMT). Choshi lies straight east of Tokyo.
Packing wind gusts up to 180 kilometres per hour, the storm was moving north at 30 kilometres per hour and expected to make landfall in the northeast later in the day.
That would make it the first typhoon to directly land in the region from the Pacific Ocean since the country’s present weather observation system was introduced in 1951, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Typhoons usually approach Japan from the south and southwest before moving northward across the archipelago.
Lionrock, which formed more than 10 days ago, has become the
longest-lasting typhoon of those that have developed north of the 30th parallel north, breaking a 46-year-old record, according to the private Weathernews agency.
