Raqqa, Syria

Weather Underground Forecast for Thursday, May 23, 2013.

Wet weather continues for parts of eastern Asia on Thursday. In the northeast, the broad area of low pressure centered over the Sakhalin Peninsula will drop southeastward across the southern Kuril Islands into the western Pacific Ocean. Winds wrapping around the system will draw modest moisture across Hokkaido and the northern tier of Honshu throughout this transition, leading to increased cloud cover and chances of light rain showers. Areas of eastern Hokkaido will see the greatest chance of precipitation. Elsewhere in Japan, relatively high pressure prevails across the rest of the nation with slightly warmer daytime highs. Tokyo will see plenty of sunshine on Thursday with a high in the upper 70s(F)/mid-20s(C).

To the south, a nearly stationary front will linger from the western Pacific Ocean across the southern Ryukyu Islands through northern Taiwan and into Fujian. Moisture pooling along this boundary will kick up light to moderate scattered showers and chances of thunderstorms in Taiwan and widespread moderate to heavy rains from Guangdong into southern Zhejiang.

Elsewhere a cold front will dip across the northeastern provinces of eastern China bringing chances of light to moderate scattered showers to parts of Hebei and Shanxi.

For Australia, a trough of low pressure extending across Queensland and New South Wales will continue on an eastward track on Thursday, becoming positioned just offshore in the western Tasman Sea. Expect heavy rain near Sydney with rainfall amounts near 0.2 inches/near 5.3 mm possible. Chance of light rain are expected along the eastern Queensland coast, while light to moderate scattered rain and chances of thunderstorms develop across the northern tier of Queensland. Elsewhere rain continues for areas near Adelaide as the system drifts east.