Bizarre Weather Signals Threat of Monster Typhoons

Aberrant weather patterns have made for a strange rainy season so far this year, reports Friday (7/22). For one thing, the rain front came to a halt over Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan, inundating the prefecture while Shikoku, on the opposite side of the archipelago, saw nary a drop. And Tokyo got hit by a June day with record-setting high temperatures.

It remains to be seen if the record-breaking number of typhoons that made direct landings on the Japanese archipelago in 2004 — 10 of them — will be exceeded. But just about everyone agrees that the seasonal weather patterns aren’t what they used to be.

Mainichi Daily News