Statistical analysis of the characteristics of typhoons approaching Japan from 2006 to 2019

Abstract

This study investigated the characteristics of 60 typhoons approaching Japan over the past 14 years (2006–2019) by conducting statistical analysis of their temporal evolution, active hours, intensity, frequency, size, duration, and translation speed. By dividing the time period into the earlier (before 2012) and the most recent (after 2013) years, the analysis indicated that the annual frequency of typhoons is higher in the most recent years than in the earlier years. The typhoons in recent years took relatively less time to reach Japan and remained active for shorter time over the land are of Japan than those in the earlier years. The intensity of the typhoons in the recent years showed stronger winds and considerably lower pressures at the landfall time than that in the earlier years. Typhoons in recent years carry more frequent and intense rainfall compared to those in the earlier years in this study. The analysis inferred that the higher sea surface temperature, weaker vertical wind shears, and a larger amount of moisture around the centers of the recent typhoons were responsible for making them stronger.

Keywords:

• Typhoon
• typhoon intensity
• typhoon hazard
• environmental conditions
• climate change

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the comments by anonymous reviewers for improving the original manuscript. This study was supported by the Integrated Research Program for Advancing Climate Models (Grant Number JPMXD0717935498) funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (Grant Number JPMEERF20192005) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is acknowledged for providing the Radar/Rain gauge: Analyzed Precipitation product. The RSMC Tokyo (https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html), the CMA Tropical Cyclone Data Center (https://www.typhoon.org.cn), and the JTWC (https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html?best-tracks) are recognized for providing the best-track datasets.

Authors’ contributions

SN proposed the topic, designed the study, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. TT helped in the interpretation and the construction of the manuscript. SM helped in analyzing data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article includes the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) based Radar/Rain gauge – Analyzed Precipitation product, and the RSMC Tokyo (https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html), the CMA Tropical Cyclone Data Center (https://www.typhoon.org.cn), and the JTWC (https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html?best-tracks) best-track datasets.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the TOUGOU program Grant Number JPMXD0717935498 and the advanced studies of climate change projection (SENTAN) Grant Number JPMXD0722678534 funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Government of Japan.