Extra-Tropical Storm Melor swept through Japan yesterday,October 8, delaying airline flights and bringing gusty winds to the main island. Around noontime EDT, NASA satellite imagery saw Melor’s remnants were raining on Hokkaido and the Habomai Islands.

Hokkaido and the Habomai islands were buffeted by strong winds and high waves. Hokkaidō is Japan’s second largest island and north of the big island. Sapporo is the capital city in Hokkaidō and is best-known for hosting the 1972 Olympics. The Habomai islands are located off the northern coast of Japan’s Hokkaido Island, and are part of the Kuril Island chain. Those islands are also known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

NASA’s Aqua satellite’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured remnants of Extra-tropical Storm Melor on October 8 at 11:59 a.m. EDT. At that time, Melor appeared as a large amorphous area located over Hokkaidō and the Kuril island chain, as Melor continued moving outto sea. AIRS imagery revealed that there were no extremely high thunderstorms, and cloud temperatures were warmer than -63F (the threshold that indicates high, powerful thunderstorms).

As Melor swept through Japan, it did take four lives, and injured more than 100 people. On the big island, north of Toyko, a tornado was reported to have destroyed a post office, downed trees and powerlines and caused other damages.

Melor still had 89 mph wind gusts as it exited Japan on Friday, October 9, and is expected to weaken to a tropical depression as is tracks northeastward along Russia’s Kuril island chain. The extratropical remnants of Typhoon are now in the western North Pacific Ocean. It was the first typhoon to make landfall in Japan in two years.

Parma has reemerged over the open waters of the South China Sea and will head west-northwest, slowly intensifying a little. The storm is expected to pass over Hainan Island before making final landfall in Vietnam early next week.

NASA’s Aqua satellite AIRS instrument captured Tropical Storm Parma on October 8 at 1:47 p.m. EDT. The Aqua satellite image showed that Parma had re-strengthened into a tropical storm and has developed some high, strong thunderstorms in the storm’s center, which had already moved off the coast of the Philippines. Thunderstorm cloud tops were as cold as -63 Fahrenheit, indicating powerful thunderstorms, with moderate rainfall. Satellite data indicates there is limited, yet deep convection, and most of the deep convection has dissipated recently because of a moderate easterly wind shear (winds that tear a storm apart).

On October 9 at 11 a.m. EDT, Tropical Storm Parma had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (35 knots). Parma’s center is finally in the South China Sea, and it is located about 400 nautical miles southeast of Hong Kong, near 17.4 North and 118.7 East. Parma is moving northwestward near 8 mph.

At 4:09 p.m. local time on Friday, October 9 the floodwaters in some provinces in Central Luzon have begun to subside after days of Parma’s heavy rains. Recent reports indicate many people are missing and at least 102 people have died from flooding and landslides. Most of the deaths were reported in the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines.

Parma is not expected to intensify significantly in the next 48 hours because of the upper level winds that are battering it and cooler ocean water temperatures it is headed toward. Over the weekend, Parma’s center is expected to sweep the southern part Hainan island and will weaken afterward on its forecast track to Vietnam.