Weather tracker: Japan swelters as ‘heat dome’ pushes up temperatures

Trapped warm air and high pressure result in country recording temperature of 40C for first time in the month of June

There were scorching conditions across Japan over the weekend, with the 40C threshold breached for the first time in the month of June. A temperature of 40.2C was recorded on Saturday in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, north-east of Tokyo,which beat the previous June record of 39.8C set in 2011. Several heatstroke alerts were in place across the region with people rushed to hospital for heat-related illnesses, with many older and young people succumbing to heat exhaustion.

High pressure to the east of Japan over the Pacific induced a south to south-westerly airflow that brought warm air up from the equatorial region, which fuelled the high temperatures. High pressure over a number of days contributed to creating a heat dome", trapping the warmer air and helping temperatures rise day on day.