TOKYO —

The Japan Meteorological Agency will issue a forecast on what parts of Japan will be hit by lightning one hour earlier beginning in fiscal 2010, to prevent lightning damage to people and aircraft, its officials said Monday. The agency will indicate the expected rates of occurrence of lightning damage in four stages—more than 10 percent, some 5 percent, around 1 percent and less than 1 percent—on its website, which shows a 1-square-meter lattice pattern on a map of each region. The rates will be calculated by observing well-developed thunderclouds and antennas set up at 29 airports around Japan to catch electromagnetic waves from lightning, according to the officials. The forecast will be updated every 10 minutes, they said.

Japan experienced 392 instances of lightning damage in 195 days from 2005 to 2007, according to the agency. In this month, two climbers were killed by lightning strikes in Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures. On Aug. 4, power supply was cut off at about 560,000 households in almost all parts of Yamanashi Prefecture, during which a woman was killed by a car at a crossroad as the lights had been turned off there. On Aug. 8, lightning strikes made two big holes on runways at Miyazaki Airport, closing the airport for 90 minutes and affecting 18 flights. The agency’s expert panel has urged it to show people how they should act when their residential areas are hit by lightning, in addition to providing the forecast, prompting the agency to consider how it should react to the proposal, the officials said.

Kyodo

4 Comments

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  chibaman at 04:40 AM JST - 19th August

  The agency will indicate the expected rates of occurrence of lightning damage in four stages—more than 10 percent, some 5 percent, around 1 percent and less than 1 percent

  More than 10 percent?! Good job boys. Will be hiding under my desk but staring at the blue cloudless sky outside as you get it wrong yet again.

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  some14some at 08:04 AM JST - 19th August

  one more outlet for wasteful use of money by Meteorological Agency.

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  MrMukatsuku at 08:57 AM JST - 19th August

  on its website, ... The forecast will be updated every 10 minutes

  Does this mean that now, if I fail to observe the website every 10 minutes that I am culpable for damages caused by lightening?

  Since lightening damage is viewed as 'act of god', and due to the efforts of the Meteorological Agency this damage is preventable, does this mean that my insurance premiums will be affected? On the other hand, if I, or my property is affected by an unforecasted lightening strike, e.g. loosing the contents of my freezer because of a power cut caused by a lightening strike, can I sue the Meteorological Agency for providing an ineffective 'lightening forecast service'?

  Questions, questions...

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  LIBERTAS at 11:03 AM JST - 19th August

  By concentrating on all the frivolous details to which we can give high-profile media attention, we can thereby deflect criticism that we are a bunch of incompetents with official government certificates to prove it!

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