Tag - heat waves

 
 

HEAT WAVES

Recent heat waves and little rain may impact the rice harvest in Japan that typically starts in late summer, at a time when rice supplies have already been strained by adverse weather in recent years.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2025
Japan’s rice crop at risk as farms face record-breaking heat
Weather extremes may impact the harvest that typically starts in late summer, at a time when rice supplies have already been strained by adverse weather in recent years.
Trees burn during a wildfire near in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse in southern France on Wednesday.
WORLD
Aug 7, 2025
Deadly wildfires in southwest France burn area larger than Paris
The fire, which has killed one, has cut power to thousands of homes and is being tackled by around 2,100 firefighters assisted by aircraft.
A worker tries to cool down a street in central Tokyo Tuesday as wide swaths of the Kanto region sweltered under intense heat. In Gunma Prefecture, the temperature rose 41.8 degrees Celsius, the highest ever recorded in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 5, 2025
Japan swelters as previous heat record melts
The country experienced its new hottest day ever on Tuesday at 41.8 degrees Celsius, beating the previous record set just last week.
People cool off under water jets in Madrid on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 5, 2025
'Silent killer': the science of tracing climate deaths in heat waves
Heat can claim tens of thousands of lives during European summers but it usually takes months to count the cost. Scientists are aiming to change that with faster studies.
People shield their eyes from the sun as they walk through a street on a hot day in Tokyo on July 26.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2025
Extreme heat in Japan set to peak this week
Temperatures are particularly high in the Hokuriku region, where the mercury has exceeded 38 degrees Celsius in many areas.
A tourist walks with a paper fan in the Dotonbori area in the city of Osaka on Thursday amid high temperatures.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2025
Japan logs hottest July for third year in a row
As the average temperature in June also hit a new record this year, the average summer temperature from June to August is likely to rewrite the record, too, experts said.
Japan's temperature soared to a record 41.2 degrees Celsius in Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture, on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 41.1 C.
JAPAN / Breaking
Jul 30, 2025
Japan marks highest-ever temperature of 41.2 C in Hyogo
The mercury hit the above-human temperature of 41.2 C in the city of Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture, as authorities urged people to take precautions to avoid heatstroke.
Pedestrians use umbrellas to shelter from the sun as they cross a street in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 30, 2025
Record number of heatstroke sufferers taken by ambulance to hospital
A total of 10,804 heatstroke sufferers were taken to hospital by ambulance last week, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Women use parasols to shelter from the sun on a hot summer day in Berlin on July 2
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 27, 2025
Germans are finally embracing air conditioning, even renters
Most homes in Germany — and in northwest Europe — don’t have AC and haven’t really needed it until heat waves became more frequent in recent years.
Manhattan Beach on the California coast
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 25, 2025
‘Unprecedented’ ocean heat waves in 2023 suggest climate tipping point
The world’s oceans experienced a staggering amount of warming in 2023, as vast marine heat waves affected 96% of their surface.
The city of Obihiro in Hokkaido amid scorching heat on Thursday
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2025
Extreme heat grips Japan, including even Hokkaido
Several cities in Hokkaido experienced record-high temperatures on Thursday, and Hokkaido Railway has suspended portions of its rail lines as a safety precaution.
A mobile battery ignites during a simulation experiment.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2025
Agency warns of fire risks from lithium-ion batteries
Lithium-ion batteries are vulnerable to heat and impact, making them prone to accidents when temperatures rise.
A police officer wears a neck cooler in Tokyo's Chuo Ward on July 10.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2025
Tokyo police embrace cooling gear to protect officers from extreme heat

The number of days when temperatures in Tokyo exceed 35 degrees Celsius continues to rise each year, prompting the need to protect police officers.
As the rainy season appears to have ended in most regions, including Kanto, the Meteorological Agency is calling on people to take measures against heat waves.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2025
Rainy season ends in the Kanto region, a day earlier than average
Areas from southern Tohoku to the Kyushu region are expected to see extremely hot days next week.
A student leaves the secondary school building built by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kere, in Kere's home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, on June 3, 2022.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 17, 2025
How schools are being built for extreme heat — without air conditioning
With techniques such as cross-ventilation and materials such as clay, architects around the world are adapting schools to climate change without the use of air conditioning.
Firefighters work to tackle a wildfire spread at Les Pennes-Mirabeau, near Marseille, southern France, on July 8
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / EXPLAINER
Jul 15, 2025
How climate change is fueling wildfires in Europe
Wildfires have burnt 227,000 hectares of land since the beginning of the year — more than double the average for this time of year over the past two decades.
Shahbaz Ali, a ride-hailing motorcycle driver who earns $8 on a good day, transports a passenger through the busy streets of Karachi, Pakistan, on June 26.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 15, 2025
When it’s this hot, ‘We are enduring, not living’
In Karachi, 17 million residents endure overlapping crises of toxic air, flooding, poor waste disposal and climate change.
A public school teacher leads the class during the first day of in-person classes, at a school flooded due to high tide, in Macabebe, Pampanga province, Philippines, in August 2022.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 10, 2025
Philippines struggling to ready underfunded schools for climate hazards
Teachers want the government to do more than tweak the school calendar, and also invest in infrastructure that will make schools resilient to heat and storms.
Japan will experience a heat wave through mid-July on a “level only seen once in a decade,” the Meteorological Agency said on June 30.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2025
Heatstroke alert issued for 19 prefectures as Japan enters 'once-in-a-decade' heat wave
Included among the alerts were the first of the year for central Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture.
A delivery driver takes a break in the shade during high temperatures in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 21, 2024.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2025
How much does a heat wave cost? Insurers and CEOs want to know.
Some believe a new market for heat insurance — driven in part by artificial intelligence and the need to cool data centers — is around the corner.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person