Notes

Abstract

THE typhoon which recently visited Japan, isolated Tokyo telegraphically from September 22 to 24, and carried widespread devastation, is said to have been the severest experienced in half a century. Accounts so far are meagre, but according to reports already received the loss of life and damage to property afloat and on shore are appalling. The storm appears to have been most violent in the middle of the south coast. Typhoons are revolving storms of tropical origin that may occur in Far Eastern seas—the North Pacific or the China Seas—during any month of the year. In Japan and its neighbourhood they are, as a rule, confined to the months of June to September inclusive, and are most frequent in September. In general, all tropical revolving storms follow a para-bolic track. The typhoons that visit Japan in Sep-tember usually originate in the Pacific south-eastward of Formosa, move N.W. by W., recurve when abreast of that island, and then take the direction of the Japan Sea. Algue divides the tracks of typhoons in the Far East into two classes—those of the Pacific, which do not cross the meridian of 124 E., and those of the China Sea. A typhoon is said to travel rapidly when its rate of motion exceeds twelve nautical miles an hour; if its rate of motion be less than six miles an hour it is said to travel slowly. The September typhoons come under the former category.