'Super-typhoons' forecast for second half of century

The effects of global warming will spawn “super-typhoons” packing winds of up to 288 kph in the second half of this century, causing unprecedented damage to Japan’s coastlines, researchers warned.

“If a super-typhoon lands on Japan, the high tides could bring about more serious damage than that in the Isewan Typhoon,” said Kazuhisa Tsuboki, associate professor of meteorology at Nagoya University and a member of the research team.

The Isewan Typhoon that struck the Ise Bay area facing Nagoya in 1959 killed more than 5,000 people, many of whom were swept away in the high tides.

The researchers from Nagoya University, the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute and other organizations said the super-typhoons will also be stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,000 people in the southern United States in 2005.

The researchers, who started their study in August this year, predicted that global warming will raise the temperature on the sea surface in the western Pacific Ocean by 2 degrees, leading to several super-typhoons with winds of 241.2 kph or stronger from 2074 to 2087.

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN