The rainy season appears to have ended in the regions of Tokai and Kanto, including Tokyo, on Thursday, the Meteorological Agency said, making it a shorter period than usual.
The weather agency said the rainy season for the Kanto-Koshin region — the Greater Tokyo area plus Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures — and the Tokai region of Shizuoka, Gifu, Aichi and Mie prefectures looks to have ended a day earlier than average.
This year, the rainy season for the Kanto-Koshin region lasted for 27 days from June 21, the third-shortest period ever. The rainy season has already ended in Okinawa and the southern Kyushu region.
The mercury rose across Japan on Thursday with cities such as Kyotanabe in Kyoto Prefecture, and Toyooka in Hyogo Prefecture, topping 35 degrees Celsius. In Sapporo, where it’s normally cooler, temperatures have risen as high as 31.8 C.
Heatstroke warnings have been issued in 17 areas, from Okinawa to Osaka and the Tokai region.
In the week through Sunday, 6,194 people were rushed to the hospital for suspected heatstroke, down from 9,105 a week earlier, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
The weather agency is forecasting temperatures to climb above 35 C in Tokyo over most of next week, when many schools start their summer vacation.