Eight people died and thousands were taken to hospitals on Wednesday as a heat wave continued to scorch wide areas of Japan, sending the temperature to top 40 C in the central prefecture of Gifu, the highest recorded in the country in nearly five years. The weather agency is warning…
Eight people died and thousands were taken to hospitals on Wednesday as a heat wave continued to scorch wide areas of Japan, sending the temperature to top 40 C in the central prefecture of Gifu, the highest recorded in the country in nearly five years.
The weather agency is warning of extremely high temperatures that are expected to continue through Thursday. The country has been having a heat spell following the rain disaster that devastated western Japan earlier in the month.
On Wednesday, the temperature hit 40.7 C in the city of Tajimi in Gifu, while that in the city of Mino, also in Gifu, reached 40.6 C. The last time the mercury topped 40 C was in August 2013 in Kochi Prefecture, when 41.0 C — the country’s highest on record — was observed, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Eight people in eight prefectures died from heatstroke, including a 91-year-old man who was found collapsed in the garden of his home in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture. Nearly 2,400 people were taken to hospitals across the country due to heatstroke or heat exhaustion, according to a Kyodo News tally.
The scorching heat already killed six people on Tuesday. Among them was a 6-year-old boy who fell unconscious after he attended an outdoor class for about two hours with his teacher and classmates in Aichi Prefecture.
