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Tsuguti, H., and T. Kato, 2014: Contributing factors of the heavy rainfall event at Amami-Oshima Island, Japan, on 20 October 2010. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 92, 163–183.
https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2014-202

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Highlights:

• The low-level humid air, supplied to Amami-Oshima Island during the heavy rainfall event by strong east–northeasterly winds, originated more than 500 km to the east–northeast as low-level dry air on the northern side of a stationary front (Fig. 1).
• The dry air was transformed into humid air on the way to the island by receiving large latent heat flux from the sea surface (air-parcel transformation) (Fig. 2). Warm sea surface temperatures around Amami-Oshima Island, about 2°C higher than the annual mean, contributed to this air-parcel transformation.
• At Amami-Oshima Island, the collision of the humid air with a cold pool produced by pre-existed precipitation systems contributed significantly to the formation and maintenance of the precipitation systems causing the heavy rainfall event, supplemented by topographic effects of the island.