Yahoo! Weather, an app for smartphones (iOS version), began offering a feature that visually shows the presence and transition of linear precipitation zones in its rain cloud radar; the Android version was launched earlier in July.
A linear precipitation zone is a phenomenon that brings torrential rainfall over a wide area, and caused extensive damage during Typhoon No. 7 in August.
This function, which aims to promote early disaster prevention activities, displays precipitation areas in linear precipitation zones as ellipses on the “rain cloud radar” based on data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The function displays precipitation areas at 10-minute intervals, from one hour in advance to a maximum of 30 minutes in the future. In addition, during the occurrence of a linear precipitation zone, an alert message is displayed on the screen so that the user can quickly learn of the area where the zone will occur.
According to data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the frequency of heavy rainfall is now about twice as frequent as it was around 1980, and caution should be exercised during the coming runoff season.
© Source travel watch