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Typhoon Maria (2006)
Encyclopedia
Typhoon Maria was a weak typhoon which brushed the southeastern coast of Japan during early August 2006. The seventh named storm of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season
, Maria formed out of a tropical depression over the open waters of the western Pacific Ocean
. On August 5, the Japan Meteorological Agency
(JMA) classified the depression as a tropical storm while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center
(JTWC) kept it as a depression. The storm quickly strengthened into a typhoon the next day, reaching its peak intensity with winds of 130 km/h (80 mph 10-minute winds) early on August 6. The storm gradually weakened as it began to recurve, causing it to parallel the southeastern coast of Japan. On August 9, Maria weakened into a tropical depression and later into an extratropical cyclone
before dissipating on August 15. Maria had only minor effects in Japan, mainly heavy rains which were estimated to have peaked over 400 mm (15.7 in) on the Izu Peninsula
. One person was killed after being struck by lightning and six others were injured.
(JMA) began monitoring a tropical depression located to the southeast of Minami Torishima
Island. The depression slowly developed as it moved towards the west-northwest. At 1630 UTC
on August 5, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center
(JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
on the developing system while it was located about 740 km (460 mi) east-northeast of the northern Mariana Islands
. Deep convection
was present around the center of circulation
but the overall structure of the storm resembled a subtropical cyclone
. However, the storm was likely to intensify as it was located within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear
with favorable diffulence aloft. Later that day, the JMA upgraded the depression to a tropical storm and gave it the name Maria; a name submitted by the United States and a common Chamorro feminine name
. Maria continued towards the west-northwest along the edge of a broad subtropical ridge
located east of Japan.
As the JMA issued their first advisory, the JTWC designated the system as Tropical Depression 09W while located about 280 km (175 mi) east-northeast of Iwo Jima
. Early the next day, the JMA classified Maria as a severe tropical storm with winds of 95 km/h (60 mph 10-minute winds) while the JTWC reported that Maria had just become a tropical storm with winds reaching 75 km/h (45 mph 1-minute winds). The storm also had a slight northward relocation. Tracking towards the northwest, the storm intensified into a typhoon and reached its peak intensity with winds of 130 km/h (80 mph 10-minute winds) and minimum pressure of 975 hPa
(mbar
) at 0900 UTC. Around the same time, the JTWC assessed the storm to have reached its peak intensity with winds of 110 km/h (70 mph 1-minute winds). However, the JTWC operationally classified Maria as a minimal typhoon with winds of 120 km/h (75 mph 1-minute winds) on August 7.
On August 7, a banding
eye
feature developed with deep convection around the eastern portion of the storm. Later that day, the storm sharply recurved towards the northeast and paralleled the southern coastline of Honshu
. As Maria made the turn, dry air began to enter the system, causing it to weaken. Along with the dry air, wind shear began to increase and the JMA downgraded Maria to a severe tropical storm early on August 8. The storm continued to weaken as it came very close to landfall near Tokyo, Japan on August 9. Both agencies downgraded Maria to a tropical depression early on August 9, with the JTWC issuing their final advisory at that time. Maria remained a tropical depression for another 24 hours before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone
on August 10 while located about 835 km (520 mi) east-northeast of Tokyo. The extratropical remnants turned towards the north and dissipated late on August 14 over the Sea of Okhotsk
.
, Kantō region
, Kōshin'etsu region, and the Izu Islands
between August 8 and 9. Seven flights out of Tokyo at Haneda airport were cancelled due to Maria. The JR Ito Line, an express train line, was temporarily shut down as a result of rain. As Maria brushed Japan, it produced heavy rains over the southeastern areas of the country. Yokota Air Base recorded 38.1 mm (1.5 in) of rainfall and winds up to 34 km/h (21 mph). Parts of the Izu Peninsula
recorded rainfall in excess of 400 mm (15.7 in) over a two day span, peaking at 458 mm (18 in) in Tokyo
. In Gifu Prefecture
, thunderstorms associated with the typhoon resulted in a landslide that knocked out power to 510 residences. One man was injured and two cows died after a small farm was severely damaged by high winds. Flooding and landslides affected dozens of homes in Chōshi, Chiba
, prompting the evacuation of 63 families. One person was killed in Tokyo after being struck by lightning. Five people were injured when a plane headed for Tokyo encountered turbulence produced by Maria.
2006 Pacific typhoon season
The 2006 Pacific typhoon season had no official bounds; it ran year-round in 2006, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between May and November...
, Maria formed out of a tropical depression over the open waters of the western Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. On August 5, the Japan Meteorological Agency
Japan Meteorological Agency
The or JMA, is the Japanese government's weather service. Charged with gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, it is a semi-autonomous part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport...
(JMA) classified the depression as a tropical storm while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force task force located at the Naval Maritime Forecast Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...
(JTWC) kept it as a depression. The storm quickly strengthened into a typhoon the next day, reaching its peak intensity with winds of 130 km/h (80 mph 10-minute winds) early on August 6. The storm gradually weakened as it began to recurve, causing it to parallel the southeastern coast of Japan. On August 9, Maria weakened into a tropical depression and later into an extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are a group of cyclones defined as synoptic scale low pressure weather systems that occur in the middle latitudes of the Earth having neither tropical nor polar characteristics, and are connected with fronts and...
before dissipating on August 15. Maria had only minor effects in Japan, mainly heavy rains which were estimated to have peaked over 400 mm (15.7 in) on the Izu Peninsula
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with deeply indented coasts to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshū, Japan. Formerly the eponymous Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture...
. One person was killed after being struck by lightning and six others were injured.
Meteorological history
On August 3, the Japan Meteorological AgencyJapan Meteorological Agency
The or JMA, is the Japanese government's weather service. Charged with gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, it is a semi-autonomous part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport...
(JMA) began monitoring a tropical depression located to the southeast of Minami Torishima
Minami Torishima
or Marcus Island is an isolated Japanese coral atoll in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, located some SE of Tokyo and east of the closest Japanese island, South Iwo Jima of the Ogasawara Islands, and nearly on a straight line between Tokyo and Wake Island, which is east southeast...
Island. The depression slowly developed as it moved towards the west-northwest. At 1630 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
on August 5, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force task force located at the Naval Maritime Forecast Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...
(JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert is a bulletin released by the U.S. Navy-operated Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii or the Naval Maritime Forecast Center in Norfolk, Virginia, warning of the possibility of a tropical cyclone forming from a tropical disturbance that has been...
on the developing system while it was located about 740 km (460 mi) east-northeast of the northern Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
. Deep convection
Atmospheric convection
Atmospheric convection is the result of a parcel-environment instability, or temperature difference, layer in the atmosphere. Different lapse rates within dry and moist air lead to instability. Mixing of air during the day which expands the height of the planetary boundary layer leads to...
was present around the center of circulation
Eye (cyclone)
The eye is a region of mostly calm weather found at the center of strong tropical cyclones. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area and typically 30–65 km in diameter. It is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the second most severe weather of a cyclone...
but the overall structure of the storm resembled a subtropical cyclone
Subtropical cyclone
A subtropical cyclone is a weather system that has some characteristics of a tropical and an extratropical cyclone. As early as the 1950s, meteorologists were unclear whether they should be characterized as tropical or extratropical cyclones. They were officially recognized by the National...
. However, the storm was likely to intensify as it was located within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear
Wind shear
Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere...
with favorable diffulence aloft. Later that day, the JMA upgraded the depression to a tropical storm and gave it the name Maria; a name submitted by the United States and a common Chamorro feminine name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
. Maria continued towards the west-northwest along the edge of a broad subtropical ridge
High pressure area
A high-pressure area is a region where the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the planet is greater than its surrounding environment. Winds within high-pressure areas flow outward due to the higher density air near their center and friction with land...
located east of Japan.
As the JMA issued their first advisory, the JTWC designated the system as Tropical Depression 09W while located about 280 km (175 mi) east-northeast of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...
. Early the next day, the JMA classified Maria as a severe tropical storm with winds of 95 km/h (60 mph 10-minute winds) while the JTWC reported that Maria had just become a tropical storm with winds reaching 75 km/h (45 mph 1-minute winds). The storm also had a slight northward relocation. Tracking towards the northwest, the storm intensified into a typhoon and reached its peak intensity with winds of 130 km/h (80 mph 10-minute winds) and minimum pressure of 975 hPa
Pascal (unit)
The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength, named after the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...
(mbar
Bar (unit)
The bar is a unit of pressure equal to 100 kilopascals, and roughly equal to the atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. Other units derived from the bar are the megabar , kilobar , decibar , centibar , and millibar...
) at 0900 UTC. Around the same time, the JTWC assessed the storm to have reached its peak intensity with winds of 110 km/h (70 mph 1-minute winds). However, the JTWC operationally classified Maria as a minimal typhoon with winds of 120 km/h (75 mph 1-minute winds) on August 7.
On August 7, a banding
Rainband
A rainband is a cloud and precipitation structure associated with an area of rainfall which is significantly elongated. Rainbands can be stratiform or convective, and are generated by differences in temperature. When noted on weather radar imagery, this precipitation elongation is referred to as...
eye
Eye (cyclone)
The eye is a region of mostly calm weather found at the center of strong tropical cyclones. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area and typically 30–65 km in diameter. It is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the second most severe weather of a cyclone...
feature developed with deep convection around the eastern portion of the storm. Later that day, the storm sharply recurved towards the northeast and paralleled the southern coastline of Honshu
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
. As Maria made the turn, dry air began to enter the system, causing it to weaken. Along with the dry air, wind shear began to increase and the JMA downgraded Maria to a severe tropical storm early on August 8. The storm continued to weaken as it came very close to landfall near Tokyo, Japan on August 9. Both agencies downgraded Maria to a tropical depression early on August 9, with the JTWC issuing their final advisory at that time. Maria remained a tropical depression for another 24 hours before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are a group of cyclones defined as synoptic scale low pressure weather systems that occur in the middle latitudes of the Earth having neither tropical nor polar characteristics, and are connected with fronts and...
on August 10 while located about 835 km (520 mi) east-northeast of Tokyo. The extratropical remnants turned towards the north and dissipated late on August 14 over the Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
.
Preparations and impact
Weather officials warned residents about heavy rains, strong winds, and high waves in the Tōkai regionTokai region
The is a sub-region of the Chūbu region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name means "East sea" and comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes...
, Kantō region
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
, Kōshin'etsu region, and the Izu Islands
Izu Islands
The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ōshima....
between August 8 and 9. Seven flights out of Tokyo at Haneda airport were cancelled due to Maria. The JR Ito Line, an express train line, was temporarily shut down as a result of rain. As Maria brushed Japan, it produced heavy rains over the southeastern areas of the country. Yokota Air Base recorded 38.1 mm (1.5 in) of rainfall and winds up to 34 km/h (21 mph). Parts of the Izu Peninsula
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with deeply indented coasts to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshū, Japan. Formerly the eponymous Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture...
recorded rainfall in excess of 400 mm (15.7 in) over a two day span, peaking at 458 mm (18 in) in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. In Gifu Prefecture
Gifu Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu.Located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō...
, thunderstorms associated with the typhoon resulted in a landslide that knocked out power to 510 residences. One man was injured and two cows died after a small farm was severely damaged by high winds. Flooding and landslides affected dozens of homes in Chōshi, Chiba
Choshi, Chiba
is a city located on the Pacific Ocean coast of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is the easternmost city in the Greater Tokyo Area. The easternmost point in the Greater Tokyo Area is Cape Inubō....
, prompting the evacuation of 63 families. One person was killed in Tokyo after being struck by lightning. Five people were injured when a plane headed for Tokyo encountered turbulence produced by Maria.
See also
- 2006 Pacific typhoon season2006 Pacific typhoon seasonThe 2006 Pacific typhoon season had no official bounds; it ran year-round in 2006, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between May and November...
- Timeline of the 2006 Pacific typhoon seasonTimeline of the 2006 Pacific typhoon seasonThe 2006 Pacific typhoon season had no official bounds; it ran year-round in 2006, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between June and December...