Will Typhoon Kong-Rey affect the Japanese Grand Prix?

Both Japan and South Korea have been issued weather warnings over the past week or so due to the super-typhoon, Kong-rey, which has threatened both extreme winds and heavy rain, but will the circumstances surrounding the hurricane affect this weekend's Grand Prix?

Thursday night saw Japan suffer the brunt of what is expected to be their worst exposure to the typhoon, after parts of the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa, were hit with wind gusts exceeding 110 km/h (69 mph).

Korea will likely suffer the worst of the hurricane's wrath, and even though Japan will remain affected it is not expected to be with the same severity as their neighbours.

Kong-rey will continue to shadow Korea and then into Japan over Saturday and Sunday, over the Grand Prix festivities, but it is though Japan will not suffer heavy rainfall or flooding within the Suzuka City area.

According to the Met Office, temperatures during the race will reach a peak of around 27 degrees with sunshine expected instead of showers.

Typhoon #Kongrey has rapidly weakened from category 5 to category 1 due to passing over the cool wake in the ocean left by Typhoon Trami. Area of low sea surface temperature is circled on map. pic.twitter.com/tAz2mAuHvO — Met Office Storms (@metofficestorms) 4 October 2018

Winds are not expected to exceed 10mph, while visibility will range from 'good' to 'very good'.

According to Accuweather:

"Kong-rey will rapidly track toward the northeast of Japan, passing near or over Hokkaido Sunday. Despite weakening, Kong-rey will still bring the risk for localized flooding and damaging winds to Hokkaido and northern Honshu during this time"

Fortunately, this is some distance away from the region of Suzuka City, although Saturday's FP3 did feature a few spots of rain.