Typhoon WUKONG made landfall near Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Pref. around 1:00 AM JST on August 18, and went through the land to Japan Sea near Munakata City, Fukuoka Pref. around 05:00 AM JST on August 19 (*1). This means that it took 28 hours for the typhoon to slowly make its way across Kyushu from south to north. Because the size of the typhoon was larger than Kyushu, and it was an imbalanced typhoon from the start, this typhoon did not weaken significantly after losing balance due to the shock of a landfall, and it kept the intensity even on the land thanks to the flow of water vapor from the ocean in its south. (*1) Measuring the distance by the Google Earth version, and assuming that the typhoon moved at a constant speed between locations recorded on every three hours, the time of making landfall was 01:12 on August 18, and the time of entering into the ocean was 05:07 on August 19.

Typhoon WUKONG is an irregular typhoon, and its cloud shape is getting more organized after making landfall near Miyazaki, Kyushu. A little before making landfall the imbalance of the typhoon is getting solved, and now its shape looks like a typhoon entering into an intensification stage. The speed is slow, and the size of the rainy clouds is getting larger, so the amount of rainfall may increase more than expected.

Typhoon WUKONG has an imbalanced shape in the sense that thick clouds are concentrated in only one side. This imbalance may be one of the reasons that the typhoon is toddling and is little deepening so far. The animation of the typhoon and the list of images suggests that the main clouds of the typhoon have gone half around in about 15 hours, and assuming that these clouds will go around in the same way, they will arrive at Shikoku and Kyushu in this afternoon or evening.

Typhoon WUKONG had been stationary but now is slowly moving westward. On the other hand, the rainy clouds in the surrounding area is moving much faster around the center and approaching closer to the south of Kyushu. The movement is more apparent on animations such as animations of satellite imagery for the latest 24 hours or animations in meteorological imagery around Japan, such as Infrared 1 animation and Infrared 3 animation. If you just watch the movement of the center, you may miss the rapid movement of clouds in the surrounding area, so I suppose the usage of animations with static data is effective for the understanding of the situation.

Typhoon WUKONG is almost stationary in the Pacific, but the cloud system is getting more organized, so it may start a little intensification from now. And Typhoon SONAMU is on the a bigger circulation around Typhoon WUKONG, and spinning around Typhoon WUKONG as if Typhoon SONAMU is a satellite (moon) of Typhoon WUKONG. Two typhoons, however, are rapidly getting closer, so the relative movement of two typhoons needs to be watched, so it is advised to check the latest typhoon information.

Typhoon WUKONG was formed. The low pressure area is shallow and large, and the center is still not well defined, so again the forecast of this typhoon may be difficult.