The Meteorology Agency of Japan announced in January 2007 that average air temperatures in Japan in 2006 were higher than normal. The averages were 0.4 degrees Celsius higher than normal in northern and eastern Japan, and 0.6 degrees higher than normal in western Japan and around the Southwest Islands. Some parts of western Japan were more than 1.0 degree warmer than usual.

Meanwhile, the annual precipitation in 2006 was higher than normal in northern Japan, the Pacific coast of eastern Japan and western Japan, and average in other areas. Some areas along the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region and the Kyushu region recorded more than 120 percent of the average annual precipitation. Onahama (Fukushima Prefecture) in the Tohoku region broke a new local record for annual precipitation.

Contrasting to high temperature, annual sunshine duration in 2006 was below average nationwide, particularly in the areas along the Pacific coast of northern and eastern Japan. Some of these areas had less than 90 percent of the average hours of sunshine. Cape Shiono in Wakayama Prefecture broke a local record for the lowest annual sunshine duration.

Other features of Japanese weather included record snowfall along the coast of the Sea of Japan from December 2005 through January 2006, and a wide area from Honshu to Kyushu had unusually heavy rain for 10 days starting July 15, 2006. The number of typhoons generated in 2006 was fewer than the annual average, with only two typhoons landing in Japan.

http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html
- Annual Temperature and Precipitation Trends in Japan (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/345-e

Posted: 2007/05/24 11:10:45 AM
Japanese version

TAG Ecosystem , Government