The month of July was the hottest on record on Earth. Japan recorded, between the months of June and August, the highest average temperatures ever recorded in this archipelago, the Japanese meteorological agency JMA announced on Friday. Also, the winter in Australia was the warmest recorded so far, AFP reports, according to Agerpres.
During this period, “Japan’s average summer temperatures were significantly higher in the north, east and west of the country,” JMA said.
“The average temperature anomaly in Japan, based on observations from 15 different locations, was +1.76 degrees Celsius, far exceeding that of 2010 (+1.08 degrees Celsius), which was the largest recorded since the beginning of the recording of these data, in 1898”, added the agency in a statement.
In many areas of the country, not only the maximum values, but also the minimum values reached record levels, such as in the city of Itoigawa (center), where the minimum temperature reached the value of 31.4 degrees Celsius on August 10, a record in Japan, according to JMA.
“Compared to the years with particularly high average summer temperatures (2010, 2013, 2018 and 2022), the number of extremely hot days has increased significantly since the end of July, becoming the highest since 2010,” according to a statement issued by the agency of meteorology.
More than 35,700 people were hospitalized and 39 died due to the heat wave in Japan
Japan recorded the highest average temperatures in July. More than 35,700 people were hospitalized, and 39 died due to the heatwave that affected the entire country in July, according to data from the Japanese Agency for Fire and Disaster Management.
This summer, the Japanese authorities frequently issued warnings about the risk of sunstroke and recommended that the population, especially the elderly, use air conditioning and avoid going outside during the day.
Japan has the oldest population in the world after Monaco: 30% of the country’s inhabitants are 65 and over. In the last five years, more than 80% of the deaths in the country associated with the heat wave were recorded in the elderly.
Record temperatures were seen in many other countries this summer, and July was the hottest on record on Earth, according to the European Copernicus service.
France was hit by an exceptional heat wave in the second half of August
France was hit by an exceptional heatwave in the second half of August, with dozens of temperature records broken and several consecutive days of temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, an unprecedented late summer situation, blamed on warming global.
The city of Milan, in northern Italy, recorded last week the hottest day in the last 260 years, with an average temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.
Greenhouse gas emissions are causing longer and more intense heat waves, especially in Europe which, according to the World Meteorological Organization, is the fastest warming continent.
India recorded its hottest and driest August since records began more than a century ago, the country’s meteorological office said on Friday, following a string of record temperatures across the globe this summer.
“The average and maximum temperatures of August 2023 were the highest since 1901,” the Indian agency said, attributing the record mainly to “deficient rainfall and a weak monsoon.”
Australia’s winter was the warmest on record
Meanwhile, Australia’s winter has been its warmest on record, the country’s Bureau of Meteorology said on Friday, reporting the latest in a string of records being broken around the world as climate change intensifies. notes AFP.
Simon Grainger, senior climatologist at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, told AFP the country’s average winter temperature was 16.75 degrees Celsius from June to August, just above the previous record set in 1996.
The earliest weather records in Australia date back to 1910.
La Nina weather conditions have brought warm winters and cooler, wetter summers to much of Australia in recent years.
According to data from the Bureau of Meteorology, the winter that just ended saw the second highest maximum temperature on record (for the cold season).
Editor: Bianca Chirilă
