Extreme rainfall has inundated parts of southwest Japan over the last few days leading to deadly flooding.
Torrents of rainfall and #flooding battered a widespread area in southwestern #Japan on Saturday, with local media casualty reports climbing quickly. Public broadcaster NHK said 38 people were dead, four were injured seriously and 47 were missing. #Okayama pic.twitter.com/SVJMv0I6xV
— Tamer Yazar (@tameryazar) July 7, 2018
The city of Sukumo in Japan’s Shikoku Prefecture has received 390 mm of rain in a 24 hour period over the weekend. 334 mm of that fell in just 6 hours.
That easily places Sukumo at over 400 mm of rain for the month of July.
Other Japan Prefectures such as Kyushu, Chugoku, Kansai, and Chubu have also been affected by heavy rain and destructive flooding.
According to CNN, over 40 people have already been killed, and that tally could continue to rise over the coming days.
One of the main factors that contributed to the heavy rain was a stalled frontal boundary over the area. Copious amounts of tropical moisture rode along the frontal boundary dropping the extreme rainfall in a short period of time.
Additional showers will continue on Sunday, however, the heaviest rainfall has ended for most areas.
The region will get a much needed break from widespread precipitation for much of the upcoming week.