Typhoon Jangmi churns toward southern Japan

From late May into early June 2026, a broad, slow-spinning storm moved north-northwest over the Philippine Sea toward southern Japan. The VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite captured a nighttime image at about 16:40 Universal Time on May 30 (1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time on May 31), when the system produced sustained winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour based on 1-minute averages reported by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

The storm’s rainbands unleashed torrential rainfall across a wide swath of the region, raising flooding concerns. The image shows a detailed eyewall and an eye that is on the larger end of the spectrum. Low-level rotation on the eastern side of the eye produced mesocyclones that are partially obscured by high-level clouds; Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, noted that while striking, these features are fairly typical.

A wider view from the VIIRS on NOAA-20 at about 16:40 Universal Time on May 31 (1:40 a.m.

Japan, southern Japan

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