Shanghai soaked as typhoon heads along China coast

AP – 38 mins ago

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  In this photo taken on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, fishing boats are seen parked in the …

BEIJING (AP) — Typhoon Muifa pounded China's commercial capital of Shanghai with high winds and heavy rain Sunday while more than 400,000 residents along the country's east coast were moved to shelter and tens of thousands of fishing boats recalled to port.

Just south of the city, Zhejiang province moved 330,173 people from its coastal areas while another 80,400 were evacuated inFujian province further down the coast, according to local government websites. More than 30,000 ships along the eastern coast were also called back to shore, they said.

Typhoon Muifa is forecast to hit China early Monday morning, making landfall in the eastern province of Shandong and skimming the coast as it heads north, China's Central Meteorological Administration said.

On Sunday morning, the storm was about 186 miles (300 kilometers) east-northeast of Shanghai, moving northwest over the East China Sea at about 15 miles (23 kilometers ) per hour, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

Shanghai, China's commercial hub, saw high winds and heavy rain on Sunday that downed power lines and wrecked a dozen billboards.

Dozens of flights in and out of Shanghai and the nearby cities of Wenzhou and Hangzhou were canceled as a precaution and more than 500 people evacuated from Shanghai's coastal areas. The municipal government said rail authorities were also prepared to slow or delay high-speed rail services, depending on the severity of the storm.

Last week, Typhoon Muifa killed four people in the Philippines even though it did not make landfall. The storm caused power outages and injuries as it passed by Japan's southern island of Okinawa on Friday and dusted northern Taiwan with light rain and moderate winds.

Japan's Kyodo News agency said the typhoon caused 27 injuries on Okinawa and knocked out power to more than 60,000 homes.

North Korea's state news agency reported that some parts of the country would receive heavy rain from the typhoon between Monday and Tuesday. Flooding in recent weeks has caused deaths and damage to homes and farmland in the impoverished country.

http://news.yahoo.com/shanghai-soaked-typhoon-heads-along-china-coast-034937032.html

Typhoon Muifa Lashes Okinawa

Typhoon Muifa

acquired August 4, 2011download large image (7 MB, JPEG)

acquired August 4, 2011download GeoTIFF file (69 MB, TIFF)

acquired August 4, 2011download Google Earth file (KMZ)

Muifa first formed as a tropical depression over the western Pacific Ocean on July 25, 2011. It strengthened to a tropical storm on July 28, and by the end of the month, it was a super typhoon. Muifa weakened slightly in early August, although it remained a typhoon.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of Typhoon Muifa on August 4, 2011. The eye of the storm is east of Taiwan, and clouds overlap Okinawa.

The same day that MODIS captured this image, the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Muifa was located about 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) south-southeast of Kadena Air Base in Japan. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 90 knots (170 kilometers per hour) with gusts up to 110 knots (200 kilometers per hour). The JTWC forecast that the storm would continue traveling toward the northwest, in the direction of Mainland China.

1. References

2. Joint Typhoon Warning Center. (2011, August 4). Typhoon 11W (Muifa) Warning. Accessed August 4, 2011.
3. Unisys. (2011, August 4). Muifa Tracking Information. Accessed August 4, 2011.

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.

Instrument:

Terra - MODIS

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=51605&src=nhrss

Typhoon Muifa Lashes Okinawa

Typhoon Muifa Lashes Okinawa

By Jim Andrews, Senior Meteorologist

Aug 4, 2011; 5:37 PM ET

Typhoon Muifa near Okinawa on Aug. 4, 2011. Japan Meteorological Agency image.

Typhoon Muifa whipped Okinawa with powerful winds and slashing rain on Thursday and will continue to do so through Friday.

Thursday night, local time, highest wind gusts were near hurricane threshold of 75 mph at Kadena Air Base. Winds topped 70 mph at Naha, the regional capital.

Rainfall was already more than 2 inches at Kadena.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) posted storm, high wave and storm surge warnings for Okinawa and neighboring smaller islands. Advisories were for heavy rain, floods and thunderstorms.

The center of Typhoon Muifa reached within 100 miles southeast of Naha on Thursday night, local time. Highest sustained winds were between 100 and 110 mph, based on information from the JMA and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).

Rainfall through Friday will reach 4 to 8 inches on Okinawa with highest wind gusts of 75 to 90 mph. Some flooding and wind damage will take place, although the worst of the storm's winds will stay south of the main population centers.

Beyond Okinawa, Muifa will cross the open East China Sea on Saturday before a possible Sunday landfall on eastern China.

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/53342/typhoon-muifa-lashes-okinawa.asp