Japan: record heat in Tokyo with 36.4 degrees

(ANSA) - TOKYO, June 30 - The start of hot summer in Tokyo, with the mercury column that reached 36.4 degrees: the record for the month of June since the start of the statistics, back in 1875.

    In addition to the heat - which has forced the Japanese government in recent days to ask citizens and companies of the country to reduce electricity consumption between 3 in the afternoon and 8 in the evening, the Japanese capital is confronted with the early termination of the rainy season, considered the shortest in the last 70 years, and the beginning of what appears to be a long and sultry summer season.

    In Tokyo, temperatures exceeded 35 degrees for five consecutive days, while in the prefecture northwest of Gunma, they reached 40 degrees.

   The month of June, which traditionally marks the beginning of the rainy season in Japan, recorded only 14 days of rainfall, never so few since 1951. Nationally, according to data from the Disaster Prevention Agency, between 20 and 26 June at least 4,550 people requested the assistance of an ambulance for heatstroke, a number that almost quadrupled compared to the same period in 2021.

   (ANSA).