9 killed, 23 injured as tornado hits eastern Hokkaido

I work near the HQ of the construction company in question.
I was walking back to the station and the press were swarming outside.

I thought it must be some company scandal so I looked it up and saw this tragedy.

I suppose the press were just doing their job. I will wait to judge them until after watching the news.

 

I'm guessing that a tornado like this must be a pretty rare event - I've never associated big tornadoes with Japan.

 

A tornado is believed to have broken out at two places, according to the firefighters.

Broken out of what?

 

Is Japan some space center? Looks to me like I'm watching an episode of starwars when I look at the suits the fireworkers wear there if they are even fireworkers.

Humans still have nothing against nature. Sad that people died but usuaully you get the F out when you know its coming.

 

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061107p2a00m0na018000c.html

take a look at that picture = it was coming all right.

 

I've seen them before in the US. I never expected one in Japan - I've never heard of it. Those poor people likely had no idea what was about to happen.

Tornadoes "break out" of super cell thunder storms, which seem fairly rare in Japan because of the terrain. The phrase in the US would be "touched down." Given the rarity of the event here I'm not surprised they got the translation wrong.

Nessie, step back from the computer - take a deep breath - relax....there are a lot more important issues here.

 

good eye, but how could the line be rewritten? suddenly formed?

 

I have seen reports of them in Japan before (there was one in Yokohama a couple of years ago), but they are rarely of the kind of strength that you see on the Great Plains - Japan tends to have island-type weather rather than continental weather

 

They seem to happen in Japan about as often as they do in New Zealand- every couple of years or so a small one arrives out of nowhere and wreaks a bit of havoc. The US is famous for them, but it seems they can happen almost anywhere.

 

The appropriate journalismese is "swept through." "Touched down" works too, although slightly less accurate.

And calling them "gusts" is just plain wrong.

 

You can sometimes see these gust damages with crops. They are ~50-100M wide and the corn will be knocked over. It's a seam between two air currents. Most places now have doppler radar and even that will not always pick-up these wind-shear type gusts.

One came thru my parent's property and ripped off a 1/3 of the top (tree branches into 3 parts about 60' up) of a 100' oak tree. House is surrounded by trees so you wouldn't see it coming either. Something touched down in their back yard and a circle of trees was knocked over (50-80' trees about 10 of them). It's flood plain so you have a sandy soil (easier to knock a tree over) and it's basically like a forrest with this circle cut out where the trees got knocked over. Sort of a godsend since they could use the wood to heat the house in the winter. Enough wood for 2 winters easy.

 

You can sometimes see these gust damages with crops. They are ~50-100M wide and the corn will be knocked over. It's a seam between two air currents. Most places now have doppler radar and even that will not always pick-up these wind-shear type gusts.

Thank you for your post. I'm not saying gusts don't cause damage. I'm saying that it's inaccurate to call a tornado a gust. Either it's a tornado, in which the high wind velocities are sustained more than briefly, or it's a gust, in which the high wind velocities are brief.

 

thanks. your comments on grammar and usage are appreciated.

 

A liaison office was set up at the crisis management center of the prime minister's official residence to deal with the disaster, and held a meeting of officials of ministries and agencies concerned in the evening.

The liaison office held a meeting?
The officials were concerned in the evening but not in the morning or afternoon?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microburst (see the pic - you don't always see these winds coming)

www.chaseday.com/wind.htm