Climate Change Impacts in Japan

The IPCC 2014 report talks about the major impacts over the globe, discussing in which locations there is physical, biological, or human/manage impacts. In Japan, they are biological impacts. The biological impacts in Japan are marine ecosystems, and are a major contribution of climate change. The confidence in attribution to climate change is medium. The key risk for medium confidence change in Asia lists; increased flooding in coastal/urban/riverine areas which can cause widespread damage to infrastructure, livestock, and settlements. The adaptation issues in Asia include economic diversification, constructing early and effective warning systems, and reduction in vulnerable or weak infrastructures, and effective land-use and planning. Climate Drivers in Asia include damaging cyclones, extreme precipitation, and an increase in sea level.

Next, we look at IPCC 2013 Climate change reports. In this report, it touched on the heating of the land vs. the sea and what global heating is doing to the amount of precipitation in East Asia as well as the wind speeds. What I found most interesting about this was that not only are the waves, hot spells, and days in heat increasing, but so is the precipitation, flooding, winds, and tropical typhoons. The precipitation is projected to increase over East Asia at most through May and July, but this article directly names Japan when talking about extreme precipitation throughout July. What I find interesting as well is that throughout East Asia, temperatures are increasing during the summer and increasing through the winter as well. It's hard for me to grasp this because I am from Colorado, where temperatures get higher every summer but colder every winter.

The take away after reading the executive summary on Asia from WGIIAR5 for me, is that everything is connected. Higher precipitation and hotter days will make it harder for rice production in Asia. Not only will food production be lowered, but freshwater is a huge concern as well. Because sea levels are rising, swamps, lakes, marshes and rivers are all at risk for being mixed with salt water, unless they are extremely far inland (In Japan though, not much is inland as it's an island). If there is a sea level rise, this also is a problem for the marine life as well. Like noted in the first paragraph, marine ecosystems are a huge biological impact in Japan. If sea levels are rising and the ocean is becoming warmer, this can erode natural reef life and cause widespread damage to coral reefs. Also, "More frequent and intense heat waves in Asia will increase mortality and morbidity in vulnerable groups. Increases in heavy rain and temperature will increase the risk of diarrheal disease, dengue fever, and malaria." (Asia, 1331 Chapter 24) This executive summary for me was a way to describe that even though at first glance, a heat wave may not seem so bad-it could cause death. Maybe not directly, but everything is connected. Heat-drought-food shortage-famine-death. It's just a really interesting concept for people that don't believe climate change is an issue.

In the same WGIIAR5, I chose to talk about the food production systems and food security. I think I chose this because of what we talked about in class. It affects many people because without food-what power do you have? One can survive without many different things but food production is something the world cannot survive without. I think this is also an important topic because like the previous paragraphs above, biological marine life is something that Japan impacts and it impacts Japan. So the thought of damaging the coral reefs and marine life decreasing, could mean a limit on Japan's food supply. I think this threat is 'most interesting' to me because I also care a lot about animals and the conservation of wildlife. Japan is an island so I know that many parts of Japan are dependent of fisheries. I learned while reading this that as the reefs around Japan erode, fishing in the marinas can contribute to a more wide range of overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, and this can also lower the population of fish that are not normally caught, creating a loss of species. I think food production is the most interesting threat because it affects people and humans around the globe just as much as it affects animals and wildlife.

http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/article176.html

Severe Weather in Japan

Tornadoes form by three basic steps; step 1 is the first object that forms is a rotating body of air at the ground and this occurs because of vertical wind shear. The higher that you are in altitude, the higher the wind speeds will get. Step 2 happens when horizontal rotating air is lifted off the ground by the updraft of a thunderstorm. Once this horizontal rotating mass is lifted into a vertical position it is considered a mesocyclone. By step 3 the mesocyclone is fully developed in the updraft of the storm. If a tornado develops it comes from the wall cloud located in the lower part of the cloud. In the United States, tornadoes tend to travel southwest to northeast (west to east) in the United States. This is because of an increased frequency of certain tornado producing weather patterns. Wind blows across the United States from west to east, so the tornadoes are going to follow the thunderstorms and winds across the country. In Japan, tornadoes do occur often but it is far less devastating than parts of the United States. Annually, an average of 20.5 tornadoes occur in Japan. However, only 1 tornado prior to 2000 made it to F4 on the Fujita Scale, and since 1960, no tornado has killed more than 10 people in Japan-even despite its dense population. In the United States, 1,200 tornadoes occur annually.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/f5ef5s-and-the-worlds-deadliest-tornadoes

According to this map, Japan is between low and moderate risk of tornadoes, and it is not as high risk of a place as the eastern part of the United States.

Based on the graph on our blog assignment, tornado occurrences appear to have increased over time. This may not be true just because the occurrences have increased because of global warming or other weather phenomena that could increase dramatically one year, but decrease dramatically the next.


The three main requirements for hurricanes to form are 1)consistent heating of the surface, 2)high humidities, and 3)cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. The ingredients for hurricane formations are warm ocean temps (equator ward 20 N,S), Coriolis needed to initiate the spinning (between >5N, S) and low values of vertical wind sheer. In Japan, because of the location they are called typhoons. Japan is in the red zone for large typhoons and tropical storms, and satisfies all of these requirements for severe weather such as typhoons and tropical depressions/storms.

The different types of formation regions are used because hurricanes are called by different names depending on where they are on the globe. Hurricanes happen in the Atlantic and East Pacific oceans (mainly USA), while cyclones happen in the Indian Ocean near Australia and are normally south of the equator. Typhoons (what Japan has) happen off the coast of China and Indonesia.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-recent/6248

As shown above, hurricanes move through the USA from east to west. This is the dominant direction in which hurricanes travel because of the wind sheer and pressure, because the trade winds and winds aloft go in the opposite direction.

Hurricanes (typhoons) happen in Japan, and Okinawa, Japan is right in the pathway for normal "typhoon alley." On average, 10.3 typhoons a year will approach within 300km of Japan. Years in which 12 or more actually strike Japan is considered 'many typhoons' while a year with 8 or less is considered 'few typhoons.' 


Comparing this to the USA, I found 5 hurricanes strike the United States coastline every 3 years. Only two of these hurricanes are expected to be major hurricanes, passing category 3 or higher.

Daily Weather in Japan

My country's capital city is Tokyo. The 3-day forecast will cover the following days, March 17th, March 18th, and March 19th. On March 17th, the high will be 63 degrees while the low will be 48 degrees. There is a 0% average chance of rain on this day. On March 18th, the high will be 65 degrees while the low will be 56 degrees. There is an average of 25% chance of rain this day. On March 19th, the high will also be 65 and the low will be 52. There is an average of 50% chance of rain this day. The average pressure over these three days is 0.05. The pressure throughout these three days increases. The average wind speed over the three days is 20mph. The wind speed increases over this 3-day period.

There are a few clouds spread throughout Japan in the capital of Tokyo. They are all low warm clouds in Omitama (south of Kasama), as well as Yokohama. There are not clouds in Narita, where it looks to be sunny. On this map, there are no cold clouds shown. Today, there is no medium-heavy precipitation. There are spots that are light green, indicating light precipitation. Mostly downtown and southern Tokyo, as well as in Kamakura. The surface characteristics that I thought were most notable was the river that runs through and somewhat around Tokyo, called Tohoku-Joetsu-Shinkansen. There is also the Tone river north of Tokyo. If you look northeast of Tokyo, there is Mount Tsukuba located under the Mito line as well. Not shown in this screenshot, up in the northwest of this picture, mountainous terrain begins to form because this is where Mr. Nyoho and Mount Nantai are located.

www.wunderground.com

This picture is zoomed in on Japan. There are only 4 isobars running through Japan, and they run horizontally. There are only H pressures directly affecting Japan, and it is centered around Japan's main isobar (1024mb) which is right through Tokyo. There are no L pressures. There are cold fronts coming towards Japan coming towards the country on the west side. In Japan, it then continually gives off a cold front that it being pushed southeast off the island.

This is the zoomed out picture of Japan. You can see that Japan is placed not on the map but would be just directly under it. I think this map is important to show because Russia has many H and L pressures but the ones that are closest to the southern part of the country are H pressures and bring the cold fronts to Japan. On the southeastern part of the map, you can see the cold front moving down, where it will eventually come into contact with Japan. The isobars observed in this specific map are centered on the tips of Russia and are centered on island locations.

Global and Local WInds in Japan

Throughout this whole blog I have compared Japan to California, and again for this assignment Japan in a few different ways is like California, because it is so elongated. The minimum latitude is 20.38N, while the maximum latitude is 45.33N. The maximum longitude is 153.59E, and the minimum longitude is 122.56E. Japan is also located in the northern hemisphere and there are also some scientists say that it is located in two hemispheres; the north and the south. The two cells in which Japan is located is the Hadley cell and the Ferrel cell. The wind belts that Japan resides in are the north westerlies and the northeast trade winds. The country is located near the high pressure belt called the subtropical pressure belt. Japan is located around a few different "special" areas. Northern Japan goes right through a horse latitude, and is close in proximity to a polar front. Doldrums happen at the southern part of Japan.

Japan has very moderate weather and I think it has a ton to do with the major cells, wind belts, and pressure. Japan is located in two separate cells, but mostly is identified with the ferrel cell. This causes more sporadic winds and brings in the rain that Japan gets so often, along with cold air moving towards the polar fronts. The wind belt that Japan is on is the westerlies and northeast trade winds. This can cause light winds and some humidity. In Japan, we are at the top of the subtropical pressure belt which causes higher pressure in Japan. This explains the colder weather we have in Japan, instead of the more extreme heats you would see on other islands or places of the size of Japan.

http://www.weather-forecast.com/static_maps/Japan/wind/6

Because Japan is an island, but also has a very mountainous terrain it has both mountains and a coastline. The 5 types of winds that are associated with mountains are valley breezes, mountain breezes, chinook winds, katabatic winds, and Santa Ana winds. Japan experiences many winds but not all of them. Japan winds include valley breezes, mountain breezes, and chinook winds (especially near Mt. Fuji. Japan also experiences coastline winds and breezes. The two types of breezes associated with the ocean and the coastline are land breeze and sea breeze. Japan experiences both land and sea breeze on a daily basis, just like Oahu.

Typical Weather and Tourism in Japan

In Japan, the winter months are somewhat the same as I am used to because Japan is in the northern Hemisphere. The winter solstice occurs on December 21st. The maximum temperature during this month is 46 degrees F and the minimum temperature in 38 degrees F. The type of precipitation that is likely to occur on the winter solstice is extremely light. Japan only receives on average about 4mm of precipitation during the entire month of December.

For the summer solstice, it occurs on the 21st of June. The average maximum temperature of this month is 79 degrees F. The average minimum temperature of this month is 62 degrees F. The type of precipitation during this summer solstice is at about 180mm which is Japan's wettest month. The amount of sunny days is the lowest during the month of June.

For the spring or vernal equinox, it occurs on the 20th of March. The average maximum temperature of this month is 48 degrees F. The average minimum temperature of this month is 39 degrees F. The type of precipitation during this equinox is 100mm. Although on the heavier side of precipitation, this amount of rain is fairly average.

For the autumnal equinox, it occurs on the 22nd of September. The average maximum temperature of this month is 80 degrees F. The average minimum temperature of this month is 64 degrees F. The type of precipitation during this equinox is about 175mm of precipitation which is also extremely heavy. The autumnal equinox is not the rainiest month but it does come in a close second.

As a travel agent, I would suggest that a tourist would visit during the winter solstice. For me, 46 degrees is not too cold of a temperature. Coming from Denver, 46 is perfect for a hike or a day around the town. So I feel like in Japan, one could visit the Japanese markets, the tea rituals in the gardens, or even go on a bush hike around the mountains. For weather hazards, one could be stuck in rain storms and excessive rain could wash mud and foliage down the mountains if you were hiking. This is why I think the winter solstice would be better, because the rain is only at 4mm for the month, and during the winter solstice, the sun is out more than the other months.

http://www.worldfortravel.com/2013/02/28/beautiful-kyoto-gardens-japan/

"Japan, the paradise that you can enjoy with a sweater on."

Temperature Controls in the city of Tokyo in Japan

The capital city of Japan is Tokyo, with the latitude and longitude of 35.69 degrees N, 139.69 degrees E. According to Holiday Weather, the warmest month in Tokyo is August with an average monthly temperature of 78.5 degrees F. The coldest month in Tokyo is January with an average monthly temperature of 41 degrees F. With the hottest and coldest temperatures being as they are, the average range of temperature for Tokyo is 37.5 degrees F. While researching Country Studies, I found that ocean currents are the biggest temperature controls that affect weather in Tokyo, Japan. There are two major ocean currents in Japan that impact Tokyo; The Kuroshio current, and the Oyashio current. Because Japan is an island located near the continent of Asia, the airflows through Tokyo are dense and full of moisture. There are also multiple typhoons that go through or come close to Tokyo every year. The Kuroshio current flows all the way up through Tokyo and is known as the 'warm current' which brings clear skies to Tokyo's side of the island, and affects the climate pattern so that there is lower pressure in Tokyo, rather than higher pressure on the 'sea of Japan' side of the island. There is also less snowfall in Tokyo because the Oyashio current moves colder air eastward that affects the central part of the island where the mountains are. Ocean currents and the location of Tokyo (Pacific ocean side of island) affect and impact the pressure and how cold it is. Tokyo would be much colder without these currents. Honestly, while researching Tokyo, and Japan as a whole country I don't think that there is a temperature control discussed in class that doesn't impact the city of Tokyo. If anything, I think geographic position would be the least important. The reason I say this is because when you compare the average temperatures to the upmost north city of Sapporo to Tokyo, there isn't a HUGE difference. The warmest month for Sapporo is also August with an average monthly temperature of 72 degrees F, and the coldest month is also January but with a little colder average monthly temperature of 24 degrees F. To be completely honest, all temperature controls affect Tokyo, because it is an island with leeward and windward sides, ocean currents, albedo and excessive cloud cover, different altitudes throughout the island, and differential heating between land and sea. If I HAD to choose though, I would say ocean currents are most important, and geographic position is least important.

In regard to making predictions about what will or won't change in the temperature controls in Tokyo, I think that the cloud cover and albedo will only get worse. Because there are so many people living in such a small space, pollution is going to be a huge issue. While doing research, I learned that clouds are not always just pure water vapor and are not always good for you. I found that you are not supposed to hike or do any bush hiking around the mountains during specific seasons because of the pH balance in the fog and cloud cover. People that go up and walk around these 'clouds' report a burning sensation in their eyes and on their skin. I looked up the pH information for different mountains and found that Mt. Fuji has a pH of 4.0, Mt. Norikura has a pH of 3.30, Mt. Rokko has a pH of 2.30, and Mt. Oyama has a pH of 1.95 (which is the same levels of pH as the acid in your stomach). Because Tokyo has a ton of precipitation and some snow, I believe that the cloud cover and albedo and pollution for this city if only going to increase, and the pH levels are only going to decrease with more amounts of pollution which one day could cause acid rain or acid snow.