TOKYO (AFP) – Parts of Japan have been deluged by their heaviest daily rains since records began, officials said yesterday, with reports of more than 100 landslides after a tropical storm.
Mobara city in Chiba prefecture, which borders the capital Tokyo, recorded 392 millimetres of rain overnight into yesterday – the largest amount to hit the city in a 24-hour span since the Japan Meteorological Agency began the survey in 1976.
The deluge comes at the end of a rain-sodden week for East Asia, after southern Chinese cities were hit by record-breaking downpours that inundated major cities.
Deadly rains have also hit southern Europe. Scientists say climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rain globally, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
On Friday, tropical storm Yun-yeung disrupted some railway services and left thousands of households without power in Chiba, Ibaraki and Fukushima regions.