Key points
- The national temperature record fell on Wednesday in Japan
- City of Tamba in western Honshu reached temperature of 41.2°C
- Seoul had a record-breaking 22 consecutive “tropical nights”
ISLAMABAD: The heat continues in South Korea and Japan, after both countries experienced their warmest Junes on record and hit the same benchmark for July.
According to the Guardian, in Japan, the national temperature record fell on Wednesday, as the city of Tamba in western Honshu reached 41.2°C, breaking the previous record from 2020 by 0.1°C. On the same day, local temperature records were broken in 39 locations – including in Kyoto, which reached 40°C for the first time – with almost a third of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s weather stations reporting highs above 35°C.
This is the third year in a row that the July average temperature record has been broken, with July 2025 closing out at 2.89°C above the 1991-2020 average.
Record breaking
In a similarly sweltering South Korea, Seoul had a record-breaking 22 consecutive “tropical nights”, a term used by the Korea Meteorological Administration when overnight temperatures fail to fall below 25°C. On Thursday, the minimum overnight temperature in the capital was 29.3°C.
With August typically the hottest month of the year for both nations, fears are now growing for what may lie ahead. There is some respite on the horizon. Temperatures are expected to fall back to climate average by the weekend, the Guardian reported.
Long-term forecast
However, long-term forecast models suggest that temperatures will trend above average throughout the latter part of August and into September. The summers of 2023 and 2024 were jointly the warmest recorded in Japan, while 2024 was one of South Korea’s warmest years overall – records that could fall by the end of 2025.
BBC reported that parts of Vietnam are also baking in unprecedented heat, with Hanoi recording its first-ever August day above 40°C.
