 天気, てんき,
Tenki, Weather
- As an island nation, Japan has a long coastline. A few
prefectures are landlocked: Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama, Nagano,
Yamanashi, Gifu, Shiga, and Nara. As Mt. Fuji provides rain
shadow effects in Yamanashi it has the least rainfall in
Japan, which still excesses 1000 mm annually. The others all
have coasts on the Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan, Seto Inland
Sea or have a body of salt water connected to them. Two
prefectures—Hokkaidō and Okinawa—are composed entirely of
islands.
Japan is divided into six principal climatic zones.
- Hokkaidō (北海道, Hokkaidō?): Belonging to the cool
temperate zone, Hokkaidō has long, cold winters and cool
summers. Precipitation is not great.
- Sea of Japan (日本海, Nihonkai?): The northwest
seasonal wind in winter gives heavy snowfalls. In summer
it is less hot than in the Pacific area but sometimes
experiences extreme high temperatures due to the Föhn
wind phenomenon.
- Central Highland (中央高地, Chūō-kōchi?): A typical
inland climate gives large temperature differences
between summers and winters and between days and nights.
Precipitation is not large throughout the year.
- Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海, Setonaikai?): The mountains
in the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions block the seasonal
winds and bring mild climate and many fine days
throughout the year.
- Pacific Ocean (太平洋, Taiheiyō?): Winters are cold,
with little snowfall, and summers are hot and humid due
to the southeast seasonal wind.
- Southwest Islands (南西諸島, Nansei-shotō?): This zone
has a subtropical climate with warm winters and hot
summers. Precipitation is very high, and is especially
affected by the rainy season and typhoons.
The warmest winter temperatures are found in the Nampo and
Bonin Islands, which enjoy a tropical climate due to the
combination of latitude, distance from the Asian mainland,
and warming effect of winds from the Kuroshio, as well as
the Volcano Islands (at the latitude of the southernmost
Ryūkyūs, 24° N.).
The hottest temperature ever measured in Japan—40.9 degrees
Celsius—occurred in Tajimi, Gifu on August 16, 2007.
Information source: “Geography of Japan.” wikipedia.org.
Article date: 31 Jan. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 2 Feb.
2008 <Geography
of Japan>.
Report - The following is a continuously
updated weather report for Tokyo. |
