Tag - heat-waves

 
 

HEAT WAVES

People holding parasols amid scorching heat in Osaka's Umeda district in July.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2024
2023 marks Japan's hottest year on record
The average temperature in 2023 was 1.29 Celsius warmer than the mean temperature for 30 years through 2020, surpassing the previous record set in 2020.
A New South Wales firetruck at a hazard reduction burn site in Sydney in September
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 16, 2023
Australia swelters through heat wave amid 'extreme' fire danger
Heat wave alerts were in place for parts of Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
The Climate Action Network holds an event at the venue of the U.N. climate change conferences in Dubai on Sunday to give its 'fossil' award to countries including Japan.
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 7, 2023
Feeling anxious? Wastewater, heat and Japan’s year in climate
In a year that saw Japan release 24,000 tons of wastewater (so far) from Fukushima No. 1 as the planet smashed heat records, it’s no wonder climate anxiety is on the rise. Mara Budgen joins us to break down the year in environment news, where we could see hope, and what we should be worried about.
Visitors stroll through a tunnel of autumn maple leaves at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture on Nov. 4.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Nov 19, 2023
Fall is the new summer: Warming threatens Japan’s cultural calendar
Climate change is disrupting Japan’s autumn and seasonal experiences, and with it the rhythm of people’s lives.
Toru Yamano, chairman of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, tastes Koshihikari brand rice from Niigata Prefecture that contains immature grains, during a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 9.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2023
Torrid summer heat hits crop production in Japan
The extreme weather over the summer is now leading to lower shipments and sharp price increases.
A street thermometer marks 40 degrees Celsius in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 15, 2023
Heat projected to kill nearly five times more people by 2050
A team of international experts warned that without climate change action, the "health of humanity is at grave risk."
According to new analysis, 99% of the world’s population experienced above-average warmth in the past 12 months, making the period the hottest 12 months on record.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 10, 2023
‘No one is safe from climate change’ after hottest 12 months
Average temperatures between the start of November 2022 through October this year were 1.32 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
People wear lighter clothes in Tokyo on Saturday amid warm weather. On Tuesday, the capital marked a record high temperature for November.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 7, 2023
Tokyo rewrites November temperature record set 100 years ago
The mercury hit 27.5 degrees Celsius in the Japanese capital on Tuesday, topping the November 1923 mark of 27.3 C.
Cracks run through the partially dried-up river bed of the Gan River during a regional drought in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, China, in August last year.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 3, 2023
Global warming will reach 1.5 C threshold this decade, report says
The new paper adds to evidence suggesting that the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 C is already out of reach.
The city of Lyon after sunrise from the Fourviere esplanade as France issued a "red alert" for four southern regions amid a spell of excessively hot weather in August.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 25, 2023
Record-breaking weather in 2023 shows impact of climate change
July was not only the hottest month in over 170 years of record-keeping, but likely the hottest month in over 100,000 years.
A man pours water atop his head outside the Emergency Aid Coalition during a heat wave in Houston in August.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 14, 2023
2023 virtually certain to be warmest year on record, U.S. says
"There is a greater than 99% probability that 2023 will rank as the warmest year on record," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
Climate activists protest demanding that the World Bank stop fossil fuel financing on the first day of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in Marrakech, Morocco, on Monday
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / ANALYSIS
Oct 13, 2023
Why money matters when taking climate change to court
More litigation funding for climate lawsuits could mean more cases.
A mother carries her child inside her burnt house, following a wildfire in Bejaia, Algeria, on July 25
WORLD / Society
Oct 6, 2023
Tens of millions of children uprooted by climate disasters
Weather disasters fueled by climate change sparked 43.1 million child displacements from 2016 to 2021, the U.N. Children's Fund has warned.
South Korean tourists shield themselves from the sun in Ronda, Spain, on Aug. 9. Much of the world sweltered through unseasonably warm weather in September, in a year expected to be the hottest in human history.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 5, 2023
September hottest on record by 'extraordinary' margin: EU monitor
The average surface air temperature for the month was around 1.75 C hotter than the September average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
The meteorological agency said the three-month periods for spring — March, April and May — and summer — June, July and August — were also the hottest on record, with the high temperatures expected to continue in the winter through February.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2023
Japan logs hottest September on record
The average temperature in September was 2.66 degrees Celsius higher than the overall monthly average recorded between 1991 and 2020.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023
Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?
Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture — around 90 minutes by express train from Tokyo — has never seen the mercury climb above 35 degrees Celsius, a benchmark the meteorological agency uses to describe “extremely hot” weather, since records began in the city in 1906.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 24, 2023
Japan’s endless summer pushes some toward cooler places
Amid a summerlong heat wave, more people are showing interest in moving to places like Katsuura that are known for their milder temperatures.
Umbrellas are displayed at Komiya Shoten, a company that has made handcrafted umbrellas for rain or shine for nearly a century, in Higashi-Nihombashi, Tokyo, on Aug. 3.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2023
Heat brings hope for handmade umbrella-maker in Tokyo
One of Tokyo's last handmade umbrella shops has weathered many storms and is now thriving, thanks to booming demand for parasols.
The aviation industry has promised to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but harsher weather conditions are already forcing a rethink of critical infrastructure in airports and airfields across the world.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 18, 2023
Extreme weather is forcing redesign of world’s busiest airports
From flooded substations and overheating electronic systems to cracking runways, most airports weren’t built to endure what climate change has in store.
The beach at Brighton, on the south coast of England on Thursday, as the late summer heat wave continues.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 8, 2023
How climate change influenced the hottest summer on record
A growing body of attribution science seeks to analyze if or how climate change is making extreme weather worse.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces