Freak Hail Storm Hits Tokyo

Japan
24 June 2014

mainichi

Tokyo and surrounding regions were hit with some extreme weather on June 24, as heavy rain, lightning storms and severe hail hit the area.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has said that the wild weather is being stirred up by extreme temperature differences between warm ground-level air and a cold air mass -- measured at minus 12 degrees Celsius and below -- sitting about 5,500 meters above the national capital region.

SPORTS HOCHI

According to local residents in the Tokyo metropolitan cities of Mitaka and Chofu, several dozen centimeters of 10-yen-coin-sized hailstones fell on the area in the space of about an hour starting from around 3 p.m. Locals also said that the mix of heavy rain and hail formed whirlpools of ice and water in some places.

Mitaka is a city located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.

According to the Meteorological Agency and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, at the storm's peak rainfall reached 68 millimeters per hour in Chofu, 48.5 in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, and 32 in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture. Furthermore, the ground floors of at least 28 Tokyo homes were flooded.