Super typhoon Francisco is forecast to strike Japan as a tropical storm Friday, October 25, only one week after the country was ravished by Typhoon Wipha.
Francisco is expected to make a brief landfall near Tokyo, parallel the country's east coast. It will bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 63 mph, although wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher, reports Reuters.
In addition, Japan can expect to see an increase in surf, rip currents and heavy rain as Francisco pushes into the eastern parts of the country. Plus, officials are concerned about flooding after Japan was soaked from Typhoon Wipha last week, reports EarthSky.org.
The 2013 typhoon season in the western Pacific continues to remain active in October. According to The Weather Channel, conditions are favorable for its warm sea surface temperatures, low wind shear and good upper-level ventilation. That will allow the typhoon to strengthen in intensity, possibly to 160 mph over the next 12 hours. After that, Francisco will move into a region of cooler ocean temperatures, which will cause the typhoon to weaken.
In total, experts say the western Pacific basin has now seen 27 named storms this year, which equals the annual average number of named storms. Masters says that the last time there were more than 27 tropical storms or typhoons in the western Pacific was in 2004, when there were 32.
Earlier this month, Typhoon Wipha's rain caused mudslides and flooding, leading to 18 deaths.
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