Japan's southern Okinawa region sweated through its hottest September on record, the weather agency said on Wednesday, after the entire country experienced its warmest recorded summer.
The temperature in Okinawa in September was the highest "since statistics began in 1946,” AFP quoted the Japan Meteorological Agency as saying.
Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change creates ever more erratic weather patterns.
Japan's average temperature during the summer was 2.36C above "the standard value,” making it the hottest since records began in 1898, the Japan Meteorological Agency said last month.
It was the third consecutive summer of record high temperatures, the agency said.
For the first time, more than 100,000 people were taken to hospitals this summer with heatstroke, preliminary data from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency also showed on Tuesday.
Japan's beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate, or sometimes not fully blossoming, because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering, experts say.
The famous snow cap of Mount Fuji was absent for the longest recorded period last year, not appearing until early November, compared with the average of early October.
