Typhoon Shanshan Brushes Japan, Including Tokyo, With Locally Heavy Rain, Gusty Winds

Watches Issued In Caribbean For Future Ernesto

Typhoon Shanshan brushed parts of Japan, including Tokyo, with strong winds and locally heavy rain but never made landfall, leaving Japan relatively unscathed.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)

The core of Shanshan, including its ragged eyewall with its strongest winds, stayed offshore from eastern Japan equivalent in strength to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Chichibu, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Tokyo, picked up almost 7 inches of rainfall in the 48 hours ending early Thursday morning (Japan time), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Some 50 to 60 mph wind gusts were measured along the coast in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

Shanshan's center roughly paralleled the Japanese coasts of Chiba and Ibaraki Prefectures Wednesday and Thursday before turning sharply east-northeast and accelerating into the open waters of the north Pacific Ocean.

Fortunately, Shanshan's track was far enough east to spare still-recovering, flood-ravaged southwestern Japan more heavy rain. 

The past month has been very frantic in Japan, where disastrous flooding, deadly heat and Typhoon Jongdari all impacted the country in July.

(MORE: In Japan, Weather Killed More Than 300 in July)