NE China Faces Deluge From Typhoon, Mid-Latitude Storm
By Drew Lerner
Kansas City, August 30 (World Weather Inc.) – Remnants of Typhoon Lionrock are merging with a deepening upper level low pressure center over the Sea of Japan today and the resulting combined storm will shift northwest into northeastern China where a deluge of rain is anticipated during the balance of this week. Corn and soybeans may experience very heavy rain into Thursday 
with lingering rain into early next week. Some of the weekend rain will come from another tropical cyclone expected to form near Kyushu, Japan.
Northeastern China’s corn and soybean production areas have experienced nearly ideal weather this summer with timely rainfall and seasonable temperatures. Liaoning was the only province out of the three northeastern provinces that experienced significant flooding and that occurred in late July. Some damage resulted from that mid-summer storm. However, Heilongjiang and Jilin were not significantly impacted by that event and have not seen much adversity recently. In fact, the region has reported less than half of normal rainfall in the month of August prior to this morning.
Some significant rain began to fall in southern Heilongjiang and southeastern Jilin this morning as well as in neighboring areas of Russia where rainfall varied from 1.00 to 3.00 inches. That rain was 
the byproduct of the combining storms noted above. Typhoon Lionrock spent more than 10 days meandering around in the western Pacific Ocean south of Japan picking up enormous amounts of moisture. The storm and all of its moisture moved northward through the northeastern corner of Honshu, Japan overnight bringing much of its heavily moisture-laden clouds to higher latitudes.
Two other tropical cyclones had brought rain to northeastern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan earlier this month and rainfall was already above average and the ground saturated before Lionrock reached the region overnight and earlier today. Flooding is also expected in northeastern Japan, but it will be of shorter duration because of the tropical storm’s rapid movement.
At 1500 GMT, the center of the now Tropical Storm Lionrock was located 47 miles west northwest of Misawa, Japan at 41.north, north 138.5 east. Movement was north northwesterly at 32 mph and its maximum sustained wind speeds had diminished to 52 mph.
Lionrock was being accelerated toward the center of a deepening upper level low pressure center over the Sea of Japan and the two storm systems were expected to merge today and Wednesday while both drift north northwest into northeastern China. The upper level low pressure center represents a broad region of cool air aloft and when the tropically warm and moist air from Lionrock merges with the colder air of the mid-latitude 
storm system the amount of rain that falls will become substantial.
Already earlier today there were reports of heavy rain from northeastern Japan into southern Heilongjiang and Jilin as well as neighboring areas of Russia. The rain will continue to fall aggressively in these areas while expanding and overtaking most of northeastern China.
The merged storm will produce copious amounts of rain in coastal areas of southeastern Russia and over the border into southern Heilongjiang and Jilin where 7.00 to 15.00 inches of rain may fall. Further to the north in interior parts of Heilongjiang and Jilin rainfall will range from 1.50 to more than 4.00 inches over the next three days and several areas may end up with as much as 8.00 inches of rain. Flooding is expected in several areas from coastal parts of Russia into southeastern Liaoning, southern Jilin and both interior northern and southeastern Heilongjiang.
Most of the corn and soybean crop in northeastern China that has encountered nearly ideal weather this summer will suddenly be thrusted into a significant rain event with some strong wind evolving, as well. The combined impact of strong wind, heavy rain and flooding will not bode well for crops in the region, but as long as the wind speeds do not get to excessive levels crops will be okay. There is some concern about lodging corn. Some personal property and tall structures could be negatively impacted by the wind, as well.
The storm will wind down Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, but rain from the system may linger into Friday. In the meantime, another tropical weather system that may evolve into tropical cyclone near Kyushu, Japan may be pulled northward into northeastern China this weekend to produce another wave of significant rain across some of the already water-logged areas of Heilongjiang. That may prolong rain in the region until this time next week.
The excessive moisture situation in northern China will be closely monitored, but as long as a wet weather bias does not prevail during the September summer crops should not be seriously harmed by the excessive rain and flooding. However, a continuation of wet weather might cause harm to soybean and corn quality and delay harvesting when the crop is fully mature. Wind damage potentials should be most closely monitored for today and Wednesday.
In the meantime, northeastern Japan will dry down. The anticipated tropical cyclone near Kyushu, Japan late this week and during the weekend will produce some heavy rain in Kyushu, western Shikoku and far western Honshu. Some flooding may result when rainfall reaches up over 6.00 inches.
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