I’ve been here for 5 years, and every year I’m told by the locals that the particular year’s weather is ‘unique’ and ‘freakish’. This year is no exception, but at least for me it feels different. I can’t put my finger on it, but the humidity is heavier, the windless days are more frequent and thunderstorms are more common. Granted, 5 years is hardly a large sample size, but it’s something. What do you think? Global warming? Big typhoon brewing? Overactive imagination?
17 comments
Overactive imagination. Seen this kind of summer many times before.
Congratulations! You reached Japanese level 3 by writing an essay on the weather. Please reach to your city hall with mynumber card to get your new level stamped accordingly.
Climate change is happening. 16 years ago it snowed in November in Tokyo. Snowy days spanned for several days too. Nowadays it only lasts a day.
Typhoons are definitely getting bigger and stronger as the years passes. Almost everywhere are getting record high summers.
We skipped the rainy season, but the rain we had recently was from typhoons.
And last month, it was almost 40 degrees and has since gotten to around 34 tops. It’ll rise again, though.
8 years in and summers have been shite as far as I remember. We also had an unusual cold winter.
I live in Hokkaido and this year’s summer has been way, way less hot than last year. I checked my Instagram archive and I was freaking out due to the 35°C weather in July 2021, while this year’s highest temperature was 30°C so far
It’s been getting worse slowly every year. This year is just unusually early in the rainy season ending so soon, it getting hellishly hot and humid starting in June, and the monsoonal rains rather than the normal rainy season.
Honestly this feels more like Florida than Japan this year.
I feel like this year was a bit weird cuz we had rainy season, an early end, and now back to raininess. At least for Tokyo.
I think the general rule for climates like Japan (with many major weather events in general) is that many years will have something that isn’t normal. Lots of typhoons, few typhoons, long rainy season, short one…. Climate change etc but also just randomness
We’re not dealing with Europe’s summer at least but I’ll be glad for some drier air in… September? Maybe?
Yea we all thought “this year be crazy!”, but that became every year and now we’re all slowly starting to realize the change is here to stay.
I do agree that the weather has shifted some in the last few years. Winter was way more brutal a few years ago. Last winter felt long but not as troublesome
I hope climate change is real and the rest of the island becomes Okinawa
I’m finding it weird compared to the last eight years in Tokyo. Rainy season came and went early. The first typhoon came early. The heat in June was different than anything I’ve ever felt before, including my experiences growing up in the icky Deep South that gets objectively worse than typical Japanese summers.
its the monkey pox!
In Tokyo working on my tan has been impossible so far. The sun is inconsistent this year. Other than the june burst.
Why not just look at the emperical data for [Japan ](https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00682/record-average-temperatures-in-japan-in-2019.html) or for [Tokyo](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339399939_Confronting_the_Olympic_paradox_modernity_and_environment_at_a_crossroads_in_downtown_Tokyo).
Chiba-ken
By now I should be using aircon full time, but I can still get away with only using it near 12pm, and this winter for the first time in my 4 years the snow stayed on the ground for 2 days instead of immediately melting
Does La Niña apply to japan?
I feel like the last 2 summers and this summer has been weird! Can’t comment about the winter time but last year was a bit mild in Tokyo in my opinion.