THINGS JAPANESE: Typhoon or "taif-u".

One of the few Japanese words that has entered the English language, typhoons are tropical cyclones that would be called hurricanes if they happened anywhere else except for Australia - where the Aussies of course just call them "Tropical Cyclones". A typhoon consists of a very fast spiral of air, spinning anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, with low atmospheric pressure in the eye, thunder, lightning, high winds and heavy rain with the storm. They occur over warm water, far enough from the equator for the Coriolis force to have an effect.

These conditions exist perfectly in the Pacific Ocean to the southeast of Japan, so every year there are a number of typhoons in spring and summer. Each year, of a total of twenty to twenty-five typhoons, roughly half come over or near Japan. Although they also often cause damage, typhoons are an essential part of the Japanese climate, bringing rain essential for refilling lakes and reservoirs, and particularly for flooding rice paddies. If the rains don't come, the rice harvest suffers.

General consequences of typhoons include flooding, landslides, overflowing rivers and soil erosion; they also disrupt communications in severe cases (road, rail, air, telephones, electricity and water supplies). Each year several people die as roads collapse, rivers wash away campsites, and so on. Last year in Gifu Prefecture, over twenty people died as heavy rain coincided with the camping season, causing tents to be washed away as river levels rose suddenly overnight.

The recent typhoon that caused widespread flooding in Nagoya and heavy rain in most of central Japan in fact passed to the south of Japan. There was almost no wind associated with the rain; instead a vast mass of wet, warm air extended far to the northeast of the eye of the typhoon, and this passed over Aichi Prefecture. Encountering the Japan Alps to the north and east of Aichi, this condensed and caused the torrential rains - totaling over 4 months' worth of rain in 24 hours. At least six people died in the flooding and mudslides; thankfully there was no wind or this figure may have been much higher.

During the recent storm, if the eye had passed over Nagoya, the situation may have been far worse. Because the eye of the storm usually has a strong updraught and low pressure, this can cause a rise in sea level of several meters. In Tokyo in 1917, there was a tide more than 2 meters higher than usual; Osaka experienced tides well over 3 meters higher than usual. Nagoya is a port, so if there had also been an associated high tide, it could have flooded much more of the city.

In most other areas of the world, typhoons and hurricanes are given names. In Japan they are merely numbered from one onwards. Every year, for some reason, number 19 is always a very severe storm. The recent one was number 14, so in another month or so there should be a fairly major typhoon come through. However, there is no guarantee that it will hit Japan - it will quite possibly pass north or south of here.

The effects of number 14 included Declan taking over twelve hours to drive from Nagoya airport to Okazaki (usually 50 minutes), and one student spending over 24 hours in Nagoya, surrounded by several thousand other stranded Japanese in Kanayama station. Many teachers couldn't come to Yamasa as the railways shut down. Similarly, I was unable to make it to work, instead spending the entire day watching the rain and sipping coffee while Declan and 1 student slept in the van on the highway...

Overall, Japan is well prepared for typhoons, given that they happen so regularly. The majority are merely heavy rain and high winds for a couple of days, more notable as a welcome break from the heat of summer, and if you avoid swimming, there is no real risk to life. There is a very well developed warning system too, so you can track typhoons over a long period and organize trips to avoid disruption to your transport plans. The recent storm was the storm of the century; there will probably be a long wait for the next one like it.

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