Tropical Storm Neoguri hits Japan's mainland

The Weather Channel: Tropical Storm Neoguri, previously the strongest typhoon so far in the 2014 Western Pacific season, is now scraping mainland Japan after raking Okinawa with torrential rain and hurricane-force winds.

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, Neoguri's center made landfall near the city of Akune in Kagoshima Prefecture just before 7 a.m. Japanese time Thursday (6 p.m. Wednesday Eastern time in the U.S.). Akune is on the west coast of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of Japan's four main islands.

Maximum 10-minute sustained winds were estimated at 60 mph at the time of landfall, equivalent to
maximum winds of 65 to 70 mph using the U.S. 1-minute sustained wind standard.

Neoguri continues to weaken as it interacts with the jet stream coming off northern China and the Korean Peninsula. These upper-level winds have also turned Neoguri sharply east-northeast into the Japanese mainland. The center of Neoguri should track off the coast of eastern Japan by Friday morning, transitioning to a post-tropical cyclone.

Pockets of heavy rain and some minor wind damage (tree limbs, sporadic power outages) are possible before the low moves offshore. Landslides are a major concern given the rugged terrain of the main islands....

NASA image of Neoguri when it was still a typhoon, July 9, 2014