The weather across the Hawaiian Islands this week is about what you’d usually expect this time of year: light to moderate trade winds picking up speed as the weekend approaches. But it’s a very different story in Northeast Asia, where temperatures have been spiking.
It’s not unusual for August temperatures to climb into the 90s in parts of Northeast Asia. But this week the region is baking through an extended heat wave.
Temperatures have actually dropped a bit in Japan — back into the 90’s after cracking 104 degrees Fahrenheit in late July. That’s when more than 18,000 people were admitted to hospitals with symptoms of heatstroke in a single week.
In Taiwan, high temperatures this week have lingered above 97 degrees. Shanghai has also been in the 90s — although the humidity of the coastal Chinese city has made it feel closer to 110 degrees.
But if it’s a competition for the most uncomfortable heat, check out the Korean peninsula. Yangsan, South Korea broke an all-time record Sunday with a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius — or more than 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
South Korea’s president has declared a national emergency, and at least 19 people in the country have died from heat-related causes. Pro baseball games are canceled today for the second day in a row, and governments in North and South Korea have issued heat wave advisories.
While rain may cut temperatures next week, forecasters warn hot and humid weather is likely to return quickly — and stay at least through mid-August.
