These services include flood warnings and advisories covering 407 rivers (as of March 2011) throughout the country that have been designated by the aforementioned agencies as potential flood-disaster rivers. JMA is also responsible for providing flood forecasting services, which are performed in collaboration with central and local government agencies. Prediction data used by JMA for risk determination include Soil Water Index values from the period up to two hours ahead in consideration of the time necessary for evacuation.įlood Warning and Advisory Services in Collaboration with River Management Authorities The map shows levels of landslide risk for individual 5-km grid squares on an ascending scale of five risk levels ranging from white to purple.
Real-time Landslide Risk Map data supplement Landslide Alert Information. The information does not cover phenomena that are technically difficult to predict such as deep-seated landslides, mountain collapses and landslips. The exact time, location and scale of landslides are difficult to predict due to their dependence on local characteristics of vegetation, geological conditions, degrees of weathering and groundwater status. Landslide Alert Information and Real-time Landslide Risk Map Landslide Alert Information (Japanese only) covers debris flows and concentrated slope failures as predicted from rainfall data, and requires responses such as evacuation advisory issuance. Weather Warnings/Advisories issued by JMA However, the other Bulletins are shown only in the Japanese language section.
Note: The English language section of JMA's website provides information on whether Emergency Warnings, Warnings or Advisories are in effect in particular areas. * The term "landslides" here refers to debris flows and concentrated slope failures. To address this requirement, JMA started to issue the Hazardous Wind Watch from March 2008 based on the discussion in advisory meetings.Īll such messages are disseminated to the public through administrative organs and wide variety of media. Serious damage caused by severe storms including tornadoes in 2006 induced requirements for alerts for hazardous winds. For example, Landslide Alert Information are issued jointly with municipalities in particular when landslides* caused by heavy rain are expected with a high possibility in the next few hours. They are also issued by Regional Headquarters (RHs) of JMA or JMA Headquarters according to the scale or severity of the related disturbance, and include information not only on severe weather but also on possible disasters. Advisories are issued if there is possible development of serious adverse conditions by weather conditions that meet advisory criteria but remain below the warning criteria.īulletins provide information to supplement Emergency Warnings, Warnings and Advisories. Warnings are issued if there is a chance of catastrophe by weather conditions that meet relevant warning criteria. These messages are issued by Local Meteorological Offices (LMOs) to their respective prefectures.Įmergency Warnings are issued if there is significant likelihood of catastrophes by a natural phenomenon expected to be of a scale that will far exceed the warning criteria. If hazardous weather conditions are expected, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issues a variety of messages including Emergency Warnings, Warnings, Advisories and Bulletins so that appropriate measures can be taken to mitigate possible disasters.
Information for Severe Weather Preparedness Emergency Warning, Warning, Advisory and Bulletin Services for Severe Weather Its objective is to meet the comprehensive need to protect life and property and to enhance national socio-economic activity in various groups including the general public, industry and the transportation sector. Forecast Services Forecasting encompasses a wide range of meteorological information such as warnings and advisories in addition to forecasts themselves.