Northern Japan bakes under intense heatーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
Temperatures across Japan on Wednesday may reach record highs, posing a danger to people in eastern Hokkaido, including areas near the Sea of Hokot. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the heat wave is expected to intensify across the country, while a high pressure system blankets the archipelago. The mercury has topped 38 degrees Celsius in several places, including in the town of Vioro in uh Hokkaido. Similar readings were seen in the prefectures of Fukushima and Shyoto. In Hokkaido’s Shari town, a woman in her 90s died after suffering from suspected heat stroke. Heat stroke alerts have been issued across Japan from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa Prefecture in the south. High temperatures during the day and cold air above are expected to cause extremely unstable atmospheric conditions. The weather may change suddenly in inland areas on Wednesday afternoon, possibly causing heavy rainfall. Well, Kitami was one of the hottest cities in Hokkaido on Wednesday. We sent our Toko there to look into the impacts of that designation. I spoke with him earlier. It’s 36° C right now and it definitely feels like it. I can’t stop sweating. I used to read and report here until two years ago. I don’t remember many hot days like this one. We would normally see a lot of children curing here. More than 10 prayed in the water on Tuesday, but we’ve barely seen anyone all day. I spoke with a couple of kindergarten teachers who came to see if they could bring their students here next month. Okay. It is meltingly hot. There is no shade over the water, so I will have to get my supervisor’s approval before my kids can play here. When I get home, I’m turning on the AC and the fan and eating ice cream. I think the temperature was above 30° C all last week. This water is not cold at all. It’s more like a lukewarm hotring. You have to realize that people here are used to a much different situation. Kitamishi cools down to nearly -20° C in the winter. And that season brings a notable attraction to the region. Drift ice. It’s a big tourist draw. I should also mention that Kitami is known for being the caring capital of Japan. Right. curling drift ice. That’s quite the contrast compared to the conditions you’re describing now. Tell us more about those and their impacts. Well, the biggest concern of course is around health. Earlier we had about that death but on Tuesday at least four people in the region also reported symptoms of heat stroke and almost 50 schools in Hokkaido have been temporarily closed. The heat is also causing problems in the prefecture’s key industry agriculture. Wheat, potatoes, and beets are not growing as rush as normal, and there has been little rain this year. The weather is forecast to cool down a bit next week. But remember, the summer is still far from over. And now we’re joined by our meteorologist Monare to talk more about this subject. So, it’s very rare for uh northern Japan to reach this level of heat. How do we get here? Yeah, it is quite rare and you can see on the image here, we’ve got some really intense and shocking numbers in terms of temperatures, all-time records being broken. Well, normally we have warm air coming in from northern China and it spreads all the way into the western side of Hokkaido and that is absolutely normal and acceptable and that is the first reason why we have these extremely hot temperatures. The second reason is when that warm air combines with a phenomenon called the fern effect then it becomes a little bit difficult for people to handle. The fern effect is when we have these strong dry winds coming in across the west and then it meets a lot of these mountains here including the Teso and Kitagami mountains in that region and as it flows down it affects people on the eastern side leading to temperatures rising significantly. places such as Obihro sees intense temperatures and it creates these long-term heat waves or heat domes. Well, how long are these conditions expected to last? I do not have a straightforward answer for that one, but it looks like this system here, it’s called the Tibetan high on the far western side and then across the east we see that Pacific high. These two pressures looks like they’re going to remain solid and they’re going to stay there in place for at least a few days and that will intensify. The heat will go up. I mentioned a place called Obiro. They might see temperatures going as high as 40° C. But shortly after that, they will loosen up quite a little bit and then they would lead to slightly cooler conditions. But it’s still not going to be optimum. It’s not going to be what we all expect and what we are used to. And unfortunately over theund last 100 years or so, you can see these summer temperature anomalies. You can see from the 1924s all the way to present time, temperatures have been steadily increasing and very close to you there. You can see two circles at the top there. That’s sadly 2023 and 2024 and unfortunately 2025 is going to be the same with these temperatures staying very high up. Right. Well, thank you Tessy for sharing your insight on these extreme weather conditions. Thank you for having
Scorching heat has been hiting Japan, including areas that are usually cooler than other parts of the country. NHK World’s Tokuda Ryosuke explores the impacts in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido, and meteorologist Tsietsi Monare explains what’s behind the conditions. #japan #heatstroke #climate #weather #hokkaido
More stories on Japan: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/tags/2/
Please subscribe HERE: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSPEjw8F2nQDtmUKPFNF7_A?sub_confirmation=1