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2023 marks Japan's hottest year on record; 1.29 C higher than average
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Garthgoyle
Snow conditions aren't as great as usual. Lots of terrain still not covered enough and lack of snow in other places, plus more rain than usual (instead of snow). Either glacial warming, climate change or El Niño, it is indeed warmer.
sakurasuki
Japan keep starting new coal power plant and restarting old one, why expect temperature to be decrease?
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14670874
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-01/power-crisis-means-japan-remains-reliant-on-old-coal-plants
.
Not only that Japan help financing coal power plant abroad.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/Vietnam-coal-power-plant-receives-1.8bn-loan-from-Japan-lenders
Tamarama
This summer was a shocker, never experienced anything like that in the Kanto region.
Gene Hennigh
I'm not surprised. Japan could often get pretty darn warm, but getting warmer is a global thing now. Still, I'd rather endure the heat there than anywhere else. It's just a really nice place.
ifd66
As scientists have been predicting for years, extreme weather is becoming the new norm.
And with El Niño adding to the cumulative rise in average global temperatures, next year is probably going to be hotter than 2023.
zibala
One year will always be the hottest.
proxy
The unprecedented amount of water vapour sent into the atmosphere by the January 2022 underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga, the most powerful eruption in decades, was expected to noticeably raise the earth's temperature in the short term in 2023, 2024 with a declining effect over several years until the water vapour dissipates. Every farmer in North America knows all about the eruption in Tonga as their success and profitability often relies on weather information. Surely somebody at KYODO news knows about Hunga Tonga and how that water vapour was temporarily warmed the earth? Selective reporting is more of a problem than "misinformation and disinformation."
Stephen Chin
Not Only Japan Has The Hottest Year in 2023!
In Canada, My Fridge Refused To Freeze!!
Moonraker
Maybe a little more reading would have brought up this sentence, you know, to show more of a trend.
"Japan has seen a trend of consistently high temperatures in recent years, with 2019 to 2023 ranking as the top five hottest years in recorded history."
Disillusioned
Records have only been kept for 150 years or so. That is a very short time in global climate time. Yes, it was very hot, but that does not necessarily mean the end of the world.
Fighto!
Get ready for the deniers a) Claiming these figures are bogus or b) Claiming a big temperature rise in a year is actually a great thing for the environment.
They are like clockwork.
tora
Back in the way temperature measuring stations were not located on concrete pads in the middle of urban jungles. In fact three was a lot less concrete in general. Today Japan being basically one giant slab of concrete, which can't help. It's a perfect urban heat island.
Then there were no air conditioners back in the day.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/air-conditioners-fuel-climate-crisis-can-nature-help
Then there is the fact Japan imports almost all of it's energy in the form of fossil fuels, and hardly encourages use of solar panels: no mandates on electric cars..... Etc
proxy
@Fighto! According to NASA scientists, the hot year of 2023 was caused by the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption.
kohakuebisu
The headline numbers for climate change like 1.5C and 2C at COP are all compared to pre-industrial times, that is, the 1800s when it was cooler. Japan in 2023 was 1.3C above the already hot 1990-2020 period. This is very scary accelerating warming.
virusrex
Not a random year but the latests, as expected from human activity derived climate change. The worst part is that this 2023 is not expected to be the hottest year compared with future ones.
Temperature measured stations are located with this in mind and avoid hot spots so this is not an explanation of the changes.
The eruption increases the chances of the increase in temperatures to reach the +1.5 degrees target by 7%, which was already over 50%. Being a relatively small contributing factor is not the same as "causing" it.
Kenchi
this was my 23rd year in the Kanto region and I honestly feel it never changes. It’s always bloody hot during the summer. My first year in Japan was the shocker (coming from Canada).
iraira
Some people seem to want to blame natural processes (volcanoes, El Nino, etc) for observable climate changes and not include human activities as a factor influencing these changes, as if to say that since this is not the result of our behavior, we don't need to take any steps or make any sacrifices to compensate for the changes that are happening.
Fighto!
Aaaaand just like clockwork comes the "experts" denial of the JMAs facts.
Cherry-picking one or two points in an empirical trend is meaningless.
Moonraker
Take your pick: it's not happening so I don't have to care or change anything; it is happening but it is natural so I don't have to care or change anything; it is happening and it's a good thing so I don't have to care or change anything. Notice the similarities within the choices (Hint - it is where "I" starts).
dan
It's been too warm over the autumn winter period ... crazy weather !
zibala
Agreed the latest is a random year.
kohakuebisu
November started red hot but was cold for the last three weeks. December was warm. Its warm now, with little snow on Honshu. Current weather is coming from westerlies, which normally meander south and let in the good ol' stream of cold from Siberia that brings the big snowfalls thanks to lake effect at the Japan Sea.
virusrex
Again, NOT a random year, the latest one in a trend that is going up and predicted to continue.
HopeSpringsEternal
What made July/August/September different for me was crazy humidity, heat index up WAY more than 1.3 degrees!
zibala
Again, it IS a random year.
iraira
Zibala said that it’s a random year twice….well, I guess that settles it folks. Thanx for “doing all that great resurch”.
Lepyon
How do these temps compare to the Medieval warm period - MWP?
virusrex
It is not, the artcile is very clear about the trend and how this, the latest year, has been the hottest on record. A very easy way to see how it is not a random year is that only you are claiming this and you have been unable to argue in support of that claim.
These temperatures are higher, and reflect a global trend, which is not the case for the MWP.
Gene Hennigh
How do we know how warm it was in the Medieval Period? What documents or temperature were gauged? My guess is that IF it is known how warm it was, then science was applied to determine the warmth in comparison to today's. That's the same science calling the climate change we're going through global warming. Perhaps someone has access to the evidence of Medieval weather, but they haven't shared it with anyone.
Lepyon
As we have no data for the MWP other than it was significantly hotter than previous years, and running the results thru a Monte Carlo simulation, there is an equal probability that it was relativelyhotter or colder than the current global "warming" trend. Btw the MWP was followed by a mini ice age so am gonna stock up on scarves, just in case....
gcFd1
Lots of randomness involved as we saw 2021, and 2022 having lover temperatures than 2020.
virusrex
The experts clearly describe the trend towards higher temperature, that means it is not at all random, that is still only a personal claim not supported by any actual source. Exactly zero experts have said this record temperature recordings are due to random variation.