The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo have already been postponed by an entire year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and now Tropical Storm Nepartak in the Philippine Sea could put some events at risk of being delayed again.
A tropical depression formed on Friday morning, local time, north-northeast of Guam and the Mariana Islands, and continued to strengthen, eventually becoming a tropical storm late Friday local time. The storm is forecast to move northward over the weekend before taking a sharp turn westward toward mainland Japan.
As of early Saturday, local time, Nepartak had 10-minute sustained winds of 40 mph (64 km/h) and was drifting to the north-northeast.
“While it’s still too early to have high confidence in the exact track and intensity of this system, there are early indications that it could threaten Tokyo later Monday or Tuesday, local time,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda said.
AccuWeather forecasters say the system is expected to remain the equivalent of a tropical storm by the time it makes landfall along the eastern coast of Japan. While wind shear could limit the storm’s development, the system reaching typhoon strength upon its arrival onshore has not yet been ruled out.
.jpg){kind=tracking}