Baku, September 21, AZERTAC

A large, strong typhoon churning over Okinawa Prefecture on Saturday threatened to bring heavy rain and winds to wide areas of Japan over the weekend, the Meteorological Agency said, according to The Japan Times.

Typhoon Tapah, which strengthened overnight Friday and was upgraded from a tropical storm, will also affect the Korean Peninsula.

According to NHK, Tapah, the season’s 17th typhoon, injured at least 14 people in Okinawa Prefecture on Saturday. In addition, some 28,500 houses and other buildings in 30 Okinawa municipalities suffered power outages, NHK said.

As of 3 p.m. Saturday, Tapah was traveling north in the East China Sea at a speed of 20 kph, according to the agency, with its winds and rain affecting Okinawa as well as parts of Taiwan and China. It had an atmospheric pressure of 970 hectopascals at its center and was packing wind gusts of up to 180 kph.

More than 120 mm of rain fell in a single hour on Saturday morning around the city of Miyazaki on the main island of Kyushu.

As of Saturday afternoon, the storm’s center was forecast to track between the Korean Peninsula and Kyushu overnight on Sunday, weakening only slightly.

The tropical storm is forecast to move northeast above the Sea of Japan and approach the Hokuriku region along the sea in central Japan and northern Japan between September 23 and 24.

The JMA warns of floods, landslides and swollen rivers caused by heavy rain as well as lightning, tornadoes and high waves.

The typhoon and a seasonal rain front that will be activated by the typhoon could bring heavy rain to western Japan on September 22.