Heatwave hits Hokkaido ahead of Olympic marathon

I’m in Hokkaido. In a normal year we get 1-2 weeks above 30 when we struggle with our lack of aircon. This year we have already had a whole month at 30-35C and it looks like August is going to follow suit. It’s pretty brutal. 2 months over 30C instead of 2 weeks.

It's not a "heatwave".

It's called summer in Japan.

"so far the countermeasures are going quite well, are successful."

The primary countermeasure being "ignoring" followed closely by "pretending nothing's wrong"

He said 30 people involved with the Games have so far been treated for "heat illness", which organizers say is milder than heatstroke.

What can go wrong???

Not only competing athletes I worry for the people who I sm sure blinded by thier national pride & constant media coverage to flock to roadsides to watch these events - without any social distancing of course - its not going to end pretty for sure…

It seems not much difference between Kanto (Tokyo) and Hokkaido (Sapporo). Hokkaido used be very cool over summer, but any more. It is a climate change.

Hokkaido has been 3-4C above average for a whole month! About 2C above average for a week or two would be a heatwave, so this is huge, genuinely historic.

https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/data/mdrr/tenkou/alltable/tem00.html#a48

We're at 800m above sea level in Nagano. When we had our house built in 2007, I didn't have aircon ducts put in because no-one else had them and I didn't think we'd need them. We now have air con in all three upstairs rooms and shade cloths hanging outside. In July, it hit 30C ten days running, probably the first time ever.

My friend's from Hokkaido. Couple of days ago he mentioned that it was 38 degrees in Asahikawa. That is pretty insane.

Guess the JOC and IOC had better add a rider to the athletes' contract: as well taking all responsibility if contracting Covid, there'll be a special section for the marathon runners, promising not to collapse and die during the race and thus embarrass the IOC and Japan.

I’ve lived in Hokkaido for 30 years and never remembered a summer in Sapporo that I would describe as “cool.”

Unfortunately, a lot of people in Hokkaido don’t have air conditioning. The other day, I received an email from a former professor of mine mentioning such.

In fact, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Statistics Bureau’s 2014 “National Consumption Survey” indicated that only 25.7% of buildings in Hokkaido had air conditioning.

@Tristis Quepe

Guess the JOC and IOC had better add a rider to the athletes' contract: as well taking all responsibility if contracting Covid, there'll be a special section for the marathon runners, promising not to collapse and die during the race and thus embarrass the IOC and Japan.

Actually, they did add an "extreme heat" part to the athlete's waiver.

It states:

*"I agree that I participate in the Games at my own risk and own responsibility, including any impact on my participation to and/or performance in the Games, serious bodily injury or even death raised by the potential exposure to health hazards such the transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious disease or extreme heat conditions while attending the Games."*

See more about it here:

https://sports.yahoo.com/olympics-covid-waiver-tokyo-athletes-202234569.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHZzlxQUX3fgOeqv1rK3OHQtTnsiQD8l0TTJ7SoM_HS3r2kHh84wOciiBz232Pi11knjE3W11pQbdB8tAXV36b9VVWKzB-ynDHy4VEu24QrAlAAV44a9BlsLjQICl49_YZRl7iKXbvv9eC2PrB7jhCqduQZxuMzOhvWVtXRRm6rS

Actually, they did add an "extreme heat" part to the athlete's waiver.

Yeah, I did actually see that. But I can't imagine anyone conceiving that it would apply to Hokkaido, for a marathon which is probably going to start in early morning.

Still, anything that causes more trouble for these farcical games is good in my book. Japan - I should really be more specific and say Tokyo and its local government - needs a lesson in why hubris is dangerous.

It seems not much difference between Kanto (Tokyo) and Hokkaido (Sapporo). Hokkaido used be very cool over summer, but any more. It is a climate change.

Actually, they did add an "extreme heat" part to the athlete's waiver.

Furthermore, the same waiver contract for Rio 2016 did not mention either disease or heat.

In its bid for the Games, Tokyo argued that its summer included "many days of mild and sunny weather" and would offer "an ideal climate for athletes to perform their best," 

They were lying through their teeth! Summer in Japan is anything but mild.

This is just bad luck. Obviously calling the summer in Tokyo "mild and sunny" is the most ridiculous thing ever, but the summer in Sapporo is much more tolerable. Moving the event here made a lot of sense. In most summers the time I really wished I had air conditioning is barely 2 or 3 weeks. After that the temperature drops, and fast.

Could be climate change as well. Past 4 years the winters have become much shorter as well. When I arrived here 8 years ago I could go to a ski resort in November and have great conditions. Now even at end of the year, you are still cutting through foliage everywhere.

Aw nuts.

I really dislike summer and was hoping to visit Hokkaido around the end of July (whenever tourists can return...next year fingers crossed) for my 40th birthday.

I thought I could escape the Japanese humidity by visiting up North, but it seems like it gets quite hot up there also :(

Maybe I'll enjoy the Australian winter.

This is 100% IOC's fault, they just decided to move the venue without discussion with anyone. If I remember correctly Japan learnt about it via a press release.

This will no longer be a race.

It’s deathrun 2021!

The winner(s) will be the ones that survive!

The losers, well. Thank you, come again!

If heat is dangerous for marathoners, marathon games should be cancelled. no one dies.

Guess we'll be counting heatstroke victims then.

If this is what the Japanese Olympic committee calls mild, I'd hate to experience hot weather.

or extreme heat conditions 

What about "normal" (for August in Japan) heat conditions?

So the heat pumps we use in most of Japan for heat, dehumidifying, and or air conditioning are different in Hokkaido? 

For summer use, they are the same.

If you want to use the same machine for heating in winter, you need a beefed up one, sold as "kanrei-chi shi-you" (cold area spec). Heat pumps transport heat either in or out and work best with small temp differences, getting a room to 25C when it's 30C outside, etc. In winter in Hokkaido, the machine has a huge temp difference to overcome, minus 10C outside and a desired 20C indoors, and for that you need an air con that operates more like a heater than a simple heat pump. Since its operating as a heater, the COP (efficiency) goes down.

".... 30 people involved with the Games have so far been treated for "heat illness"

'heat illness' is minutes away from heatstroke for crying out loud. Yesterday at 11am in the olympic staduim it was 39c whil 33c outside the stadium, it's beyond madness this 'go on at any cost' circus.

why the IOC believed all the lies for the Tokyo bid tells you how far they'll go for the billions they want. They just don't care. That their countermeasures into Hokkaido aren't working either, exactly to the day, is just pure karma

While the Games have been held in places that are hotter or more humid than Tokyo, including Athens

Again with this lie? I'm southern European from Italy and spent several of my vacations in Greece in my youth and later years,and even if Athen's summer is hot and temperature are over 30es the climate is dry and from evening there is a general cool down that brings the temperature around 20 or 23 degrees which makes it comfortable.

And I do live in Japan from years,so NO the summer of Athen is very different from the one in Tokyo.

Pure propaganda.

Heatwave ??

This is normal in Japan now!

35 or so in Nagoya today...

Why hold the Olympics in the summer? It is madness !!

Heatwave ??

Yes, look at the info from the Met Agency. The last five days in Hokkaido have been 5 to 6C above average, which means hot all day and then staying hot all night for days in a row. We should be thankful it has happened in the coolest part of Japan, because 5C over average for five days in July in a hotter part of Japan would mean lots of deaths.

(Yes, Japan is very hot is summer and too hot for the Olympics)

So the heat pumps we use in most of Japan for heat, dehumidifying, and or air conditioning are different in Hokkaido? A dehumidifier will have the same effects as an air conditioner.

These athletes can wear white hats and grab water at all the road side stands.

And what does air conditioning have to do with running or walking on a street?

@Koha: Thanks for the heat pump info. Informative.

But what does not having air conditioning in homes have to do with these people running and walking on the streets?

I have never heard of heat illness, is that even a real diagnosis?

IOC should have called it a quasi-heatstroke. Hopefully no one becomes quasi-dead.

It's a mild, pleasant and sunny heatwave in Hokkaido.

I hope the athletes are okay, but I worry more for all the workers, and the poor volunteers, forced to put in 12 hour days or more out under the sun, some having to deal with little Emperors who insist they are provided with transport out to celebration parties. And to crown it all, they are throwing away their sad bento lunches, so as to avoid having the volunteers waste time eating, just like some local government staff were told not to get their second jab till after the Olympics to avoid making trouble for the organisers by suffering side effects.

I expect they are being asked to take their own bottle to pee into.

This is not as big a deal as some here are making it out to be. The runners and walkers are professionals and will have done a lot of heat acclimation workouts to prepare. So this is nothing new to them. Hell, I have even done marathons in 38 degree heat and high humidity (on Guam, Asia and even in Germany) and survived. It is just a matter of careful preparation and then taking in hydration and good pacing during the race. But there will be some athletes who will over extend for sure. The medical tents will be prepared with IV drips and ice etc.