News in Japan - September

GEJET
TEPCO discovers pipe leaking radioactive water at Fukushima plant

The leaking pipe was found to be dripping one drop about every 90 seconds, the company said. Workers tightened 12 bolts to stop the leak and bolstered the repair using special material and plastic tape.

NRA says tainted water may have to be released into ocean

Gov't to spend Y47 bil on Fukushima water crisis

Japan begins scrapping stranded tsunami ship

Filmmaker revisits the children of Fukushima’s ‘Grey Zone’

Japan balked at steps to control Fukushima water in 2011, memo shows

1,130 tons of tainted water dumped in sea after typhoon

Nearly 290,000 people still living in shelters 2 1/2 years after Tohoku disaster

Japan's Close Encounter with Typhoon Pabuk

More boars mean more damage in Fukushima

Japan

Disaster drills conducted nationwide

Tornado rips through eastern Japan, injures dozens

Pictures of tornado damage

Heavy rainstorms hitting many parts of Japan

Married or single, Japan is a desolate country

If you’re jōzu and you know it, hold your ground

1 in 3 single women in Japan want to be housewife: Survey

Netherlands

Again earthquake near Loppersum (Dutch)

Monday's tornado in Japan rated 4th strongest on scale

Heavy rain lashes central Japan

USA

Concepts for Houston, Texas Flood Barrier

Other

Amount of deaths storms in Mexico rises (Dutch)

‘Grandma export’ exposes Germany’s struggle with care

Australian floods of 2010 and 2011 caused global sea level to drop

Glucose levels and risk of dementia.

How to Design a City for Women

China just bought 5% of Ukraine

The play deficit

Putting All the World's Water into a Big Cube

These 20 cities have the most to lose from rising sea levels

Germany is the first European country to recognize a third gender

Why are there so few people over 115 years of age? (One)

Typhoon Usagi: At least 25 die in south China storm

Another small pheasant warning

Again I was cycling through the fields when the pheasants, and even a lone crow, started crying. It did not last very long and seemed less panicked than the previous time. I saw no obvious effects of an earthquake, but with last week fresh in mind, upon arriving at work I checked the JMA records to find that indeed, another small earthquake had occurred. I am seriously considering pheasants as an early warning system, or to check whether other animals with less obnoxious mating calls can perform the same.

More tornadoes in Tochigi prefecture

As tropical storm Toraji is hitting western Japan, today more tornadoes occurred in Tochigi prefecture: Kanuma, Shioya, and Yaita town were affected.

Images. Fuji News Network has a video. No casualties have been reported so far, but 600 houses have no power.

The Japanese word for tornado is 竜巻 (tatsumaki). While there is no English page on the JMA concerning tornadoes, there are records of them across country since 1961. Anything higher than what is now classified as F1 is still rare. Here are some figures from Ibaraki prefecture. Looks like JMA will have no trouble acquiring funding for the new radar development.

Another earthquake warning by pheasants

This morning there was an earthquake. I did not notice it myself, but the pheasants did. I was on my bicycle out in the fields when it occured.

It is not their mating season, so I was highly surprised to hear them cry out in panic for as long as they did. Unlike the previous earthquake where I heard them scream (December 7, 2012), this was a very long lasting screaming, for well over a minute. I immediately checked the power lines for swaying, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Being a rainy day, there were no farmers out in the fields or other people walking around to verify if they were experiencing an earthquake. I thought it must be something else that had startled them. I was wrong.

There had been an earthquake, magnitude 6.9, but only shindou 3 in our area. Apparently it was very long lasting, coming from such a depth (400 km). The pheasants have proved accurate earthquake alarms once again, even if shindou 3 is not noticeable on a bicycle.

Tornadoes in Noda (Chiba prefecture) and Koshigaya (Saitama prefecture)

Noda (30 km from Tsukuba) and Koshigaya (40 km from Tsukuba) experienced tornadoes on September 2nd. Unlike the Hojo tornado in May 2012, which even prompted the JMA to request funding for a new radar tracking clouds every 10 seconds, nobody died.

Previously we had visited the monument of the Dutch civil engineer Rouwenhorst Mulder near the canal he built, close to Noda city. The images now give a different impression. As of now, in both areas combined 67 people are injured and 550 buildings damaged. Some buildings still risk collapsing and 5 shelters are operating.

From the NHK:

Low storm cloud caused tornado

A meteorologist says a tornado that hit parts of eastern Japan on Monday was produced by a supercell -- a thunderstorm containing rotating updrafts of air -- that formed much closer to the ground than usual.

Japan's National Defense Academy Professor Fumiaki Kobayashi said he studied footage of the tornado captured in the Saitama and Chiba prefectures.

The professor said the cloud developed as low as 500 meters from the ground. Such clouds usually form at twice that height.

He said a funnel-shaped airstream appeared under the cloud and grew to at least 100 meters wide.
Kobayashi said the cloud was so large that it maintained power even when the storm lost energy due to rainfall.

He said people in the tornado-hit areas must have thought they could touch the dark cloud. He urged people to be cautious of supercell clouds as they can be a sign that a tornado is coming.

Update: 64 people injured, over 600 houses damaged. More news and videos here. 

At the end of this video there is a commentary by Dr. Takeshi Maesaka, senior researcher of the storm, flood and landslide research unit, monitoring and forecast research department of the NIED in Tsukuba. He gave us a lecture and visit to the radar analysis room at a field trip October 30th, 2012.