Typhoon Neoguri formed in the western Pacific several days ago and has its sights set on Japan in the next few days.

Peaks winds were estimated to be near 155 mph yesterday as the typhoon approached the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Despite the eye of the typhoon passing south of Okinawa Island, wind gusts up to 99 mph were recorded and over 100 mm rain fell in just a few hours.

Courtesy of the Naval Research Laboratory

Neoguri is set to turn north-eastwards today and make landfall over the larger islands of Japan, starting with Kyushu, on Thursday. Whilst wind speeds would have reduced by then, the main threat is from heavy rain. In 2013 Typhoon Wipha dropped over 800 mm rain in 24 hours in parts of Japan causing devastating floods and landslides. It is possible that Neoguri could also produce several hundred millimetres of rain as it tracks the length of the main islands of Japan.

Official warnings of west Pacific tropical storms are produced by the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA). The Met Office routinely supplies predictions of cyclone tracks from its global forecast model to regional meteorological centres worldwide, which are used along with guidance from other models in the production of forecasts and guidance.

Met Office StormTracker provides a mapped picture of tropical cyclones around the globe with access to track history and six-day forecast tracks for current tropical cyclones from the Met Office global forecast model and latest observed cloud cover and sea surface temperature. We also provide updates on current tropical storms via @metofficestorms on Twitter.