• By
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Hagi City Office via Jiji Press
Muddy waters flood from a river due to heavy rain at Hagi city in Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan, on July 28.

Women in rain-soaked summer kimono, or yukata, with drooping flower hairpieces were a common sight Saturday evening in Tokyo as a torrential downpour and flashes of lightning unexpectedly cut short Japan’s oldest and most famous fireworks display, the Sumida River Fireworks Festival.

But the capital’s sudden bout of inclement weather was a mere sprinkle compared with the onslaught that swept Yamaguchi and Shimane prefectures in the western part of the country the following day. A 79-year old woman died in a mudslide and two men aged 84 and 60 went missing in what the metrological agency called “an unprecedented amount of rainfall.”

In Susa town in Yamaguchi, the 138.5 millimeters of rain in one hour broke the local record. The town also made it into national record books with the 16th highest amount in one hour.

But Susa’s rainfall didn’t get close to the nationwide record of 153 millimeters in an hour, held by two prefectures, Chiba in 1999 and Nagasaki in 1982.

By the end of the day, however, 351 millimeters of rain had fallen in Susa, 40 more than the town’s previous record in June this year.

An emergency website set up by Yamaguchi showed that Susa was one of five towns that issued evacuation advisories to almost 10,000 residents.

Local media reported that the rainfall also prompted the prefecture to ask for help from the Ground Self Defense Forces, part of the military. Two helicopters evacuated over 200 parents and children on a camping trip, and 40 soldiers were sent looking for missing people.

Troops rescued another 15 people stranded in Tsuwano town in nearby Shimane prefecture, where 91.5 millimeters of rainfall in one hour also broke the local record. The 381 millimeters of rain that fell over 24 hours washed away the previous record of 269 in 1985.

The meteorological agency said the unusual downpour was caused by a stream of warm air from in the south colliding with colder air and creating a sudden updraft as rain-packed clouds accumulated in the area.

Between the downpours, the country has been blasted by heat waves, causing people to juggle umbrellas with folding fans. According to the Fire and Disaster Agency, there have been over 22,500 cases of heat stroke nationwide since May.

For the latest news and analysis,