TOKYO, Aug 7 — A weakening Typhoon Noru churned closer to central Japan this morning, pounding parts of the country with torrential rain, but it had lost much of the strength that at one point made it the world’s strongest storm this year.

Evacuation advisories were issued for tens of thousands of people on Shikoku, Japan’s smallest main island, and roughly 230 flights were cancelled, but there were no further deaths besides two reported yesterday and no reports of people missing.

Noru was along the southern edge of the Japanese archipelago on Monday, with its centre just off Shikoku’s Cape Muroto.

Should it proceed on its current path, it could make landfall in the central prefecture of Wakayama later today, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said, and brush Tokyo tomorrow.

Parts of Shikoku were hit with 52mm of rain in one hour this morning, with some parts of central Japan likely to see 500mm of rain in the 24 hours to tomorrow morning, the meteorological agency added.

Noru, which is a Korean word for a type of deer, formed more than two weeks ago and wandered around the north Pacific until it began heading for Japan. At one point it was a Category 5 storm, but has been downgraded to a Category 1.

Noru is likely to weaken to tropical storm strength later today, according to Tropical Storm Risk.com. — Reuters