For the second time in nine days, Japan has been pounded by a tropical storm. Lionrock made landfall in the early evening on August 30, 2016, near Ofunato in northeastern Honshu. Tropical storm Mindulle also hit the island on August 21.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this natural-color image of Typhoon Lionrock on August 28, 2016. Lionrock first became a tropical storm on August 18, then intensified into a typhoon by August 23. The storm reached category 4 strength (winds of 225 kilometers per hour) on the day this image was acquired, before weakening to tropical storm strength on August 30.
Lionrock was predicted to drop as much as 35 centimeters (14 inches) of rain in some areas, which is more than the average rainfall for the entire month of August, according to news reports. At least 1,000 flights were canceled in central and northeastern Honshu due to the storm.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
