By RYO OYAMA/ Staff Writer
July 30, 2024 at 11:34 JST
A pedestrian amid the sweltering heat in Tokyo on July 29 (Wataru Sekita)
The mercury hit 41 degrees in Tochigi Prefecture, the second highest on record in Japan, as intense heat enveloped the Kanto and other regions on July 29.
The temperature recorded in the city of Sano around 2 p.m. was just 0.1 degree shy of the all-time high observed in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, in 2018 and Hamamatsu in 2020.
It was the first time this year that the temperature topped 40 degrees in the Kanto-Koshin region, which includes Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
There were five other locations that saw temperatures rise to 40 degrees or higher: 40.2 degrees in Hamamatsu’s Tenryu Ward and Tatebayashi in Gunma Prefecture; 40.1 degrees in Isesaki, also in Gunma Prefecture; and 40 degrees in Kumagaya and Koga in Ibaraki Prefecture.
As of 4 p.m., 130 of the JMA’s 914 observation points across the nation registered their highest temperatures this year.
On the morning of July 29, a man in his 40s was found collapsed on a road in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, and confirmed dead after he was taken to a hospital. Heatstroke is the suspected cause.
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