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Tokyo experiences coldest mid-April day in nearly 50 years

59 Comments

Japan experienced wintry weather Friday with Tokyo seeing its coldest temperature for mid-April since 1961, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

At midday, the temperature in Tokyo was 7 degrees. In Miyazaki, the mercury got no higher than 9.5 degrees, the coldest mid-April temperature in 100 years. Osaka recorded 6.3 degrees early Friday morning.

The weather agency said a spate of clashes between cold air in the north and warm air in the south has brought about a big temperature variation to the Japanese archipelago this spring.

Issuing a low-temperature warning, the agency said mercury may drop around Saturday across the country, calling on farmers to pay attention to possible frost damage to crops.

The cold air mass in the north is apparently linked with the Arctic oscillation, a weather pattern that regularly releases cold air from the Arctic Circle to mid-latitude areas such as Japan, weather forecasters said. Some parts of the country saw unusually heavy snowfalls the past winter due to the weather pattern.

The high-pressure zone in the south appears to be linked with the so-called El-Nino climate pattern that causes weather disturbances such as floods and droughts.

The clash between cold air and warm air over the archipelago brought stormy weather to Hokkaido in northern Japan and the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan earlier this week, with gusts of up to 111 kilometers per hour observed in Sapporo on Tuesday.

© News reports

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59 Comments
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I have been here since '84 and this really is a cold April. However, the winters have gotten so much warmer and that is a pleasure. Used to snow a lot and was super cold.

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Hhhhm, strange! The Global warming is affecting the overall weather in the World...that would explain this atypical cold.

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Nowadays weather is getting weird, kind of scary.

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Yah, must be global warming...

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Cold is cool, my friends. Take it easy, we are often blessed with very warm days in November. Yin and yang, boys.

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There was a colder day in 1961. Unusual, yes - related to 'global warming', no.

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The Global warming is affecting the overall weather in the World...that would explain this atypical cold.

...or not

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Burr! Still wearing my winter jacket! Hope it warms up by GW!!

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Warm weather? Global warming. Cold weather? Global warming. Rain? Global warming. No rain? Global warming. Headache? Global warming.

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yeah it's freezing

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Hope it warms up by GW!!

dolphin girl,

not sure if I can help you with this one, sorry LOL

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There was a study done recently linking unusually cold winters in Europe with lows in solar activity, after excluding other global warming effects. We're currently at a solar minimum. Another possibility is a warming Arctic pushing cold winds further south, (sounds counter-intuitive I know) which are forced to lower altitudes when they meet tropical winds moving north

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Global warming doesn't mean, that it will be always hot. It's the changing of the whole weather. You may not feel it, but actual scenarios at the poles will teach us in the forthcoming years, if you believe it or not...

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It's nice that we've had a proper winter this year. Last year was a real disappointment!

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So 4 those who less than 50 years of age this is the coldest April they have ever experienced in Japan ! Chilling thought !

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So 4 those who ARE less than 50 years of age this is the coldest April they have ever experienced in Japan ! Chilling thought !

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GLAOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!!! LMAO

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GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGES ARE THE INEVITABLE..........

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The Indians asked their Chief in autumn if the winter was going to be cold or not. Not really knowing an answer, the chief replies that the winter was going to be cold and that the members of the village were to collect wood to be prepared.

Being a good leader, he then went to the next phone booth and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is this winter to be cold?"

The man on the phone responded, "This winter is going to be quite cold indeed."

So the Chief went back to speed up his people to collect even more wood to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again, "Is it going to be a very cold winter?"

"Yes", the man replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter."

So the Chief goes back to his people and orders them to go and find every scrap of wood they can find. Two weeks later he calls the National Weather Service again: "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"

"Absolutely," the man replies, "the Indians are collecting wood like crazy!"

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Im sorry everyone, its all our fault. Mum brought the weather with her from the UK two weeks ago.

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50 years ago it happened. It is just nature. I hate snow but like cold weather. I don't complain about the coldest.

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It's freezing up here in Hokkaido. It's been snowing on and off over the past week. Just waiting for some warm weather and sunshine.

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My hands were frozen this morning.

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Warm weather? Global warming. Cold weather? Global warming. Rain? Global warming. No rain? Global warming. Headache? Global warming.

Stupid posts? Global warming.

Seriously, southerners can't handle the tiniest bit of cold!

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What the heck does "so-called El-Nino" mean. Nothing so-called about it. It is a proven well documented weather phenomenon.

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"It's freezing up here in Hokkaido"

Heck, it's freezing down here in Tokyo!

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OMG IT'S GLOBAL WARMING!!!1!!2!!

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Where is Al Gore?

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Climate and weather are two different things - the planet is warming up, but that doesn't mean we won't get unusual weather like this; why is that so hard to understand? If you think global warming is a joke then stick around a while because I don't think lame humour will get us out of the mess we're going to find ourselves increasingly in.

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Poles warm up = ice caps melt = cools the ocean

The temperature of ocean currents has a LOT to do with weather. So yes, the cold weather is caused by global warming. Because your poles can't melt without a bit of warming.

And don't act like this is one wonky day like those wonky days of warmth we had in other months. It's been almost consistently cold all "spring" long. Warm days have been the anomalous ones.

Four distinct seasons? Which is this one? Sprinter? Wring?

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The global warming phenomenon means the the EXTREMES are going to get worse... harsher thunderstorms, heavier blizzards, stronger hurricanes/typhoons, more annoying Icelandic volcanoes (OK, I threw that last one in there gratuitously). So your high temps in October and your low temps in April are part of those extremes.

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Redmango : I like the joke LOL hahaha

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It is conkers! Even London is warmer! Brrrrrr

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so much for global warming.

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Global warming is sadly misnamed.

If it's really all about extremes, then I look forward to the deliciously hot coming summer. 125-degree days beat out these freezing ones any time!!

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What the heck does "so-called El-Nino" mean. Nothing so-called about it. It is a proven well documented weather phenomenon.

Nothing wrong with this use of "so-called" before a proper noun. It's just introducing a name.

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Dang I hate global warming...

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Sleet is currently falling in my part of Tokyo (Machida). I can hear it hitting the skylight in my study as I type. Many here are making ironic comments about global warming. Are you aware that global warming might usher in a new ice age, as the melting glaciers and icebergs reduce the salinity of the oceans, causing a shift in the circulation of the oceans? This cold spell might be a harbinger of worse things to come.

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that's why i am going to greenland, to get used to cold and survive when new ice age will come

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The global warming phenomenon means the the EXTREMES are going to get worse... harsher thunderstorms, heavier blizzards, stronger hurricanes/typhoons, more annoying Icelandic volcanoes (OK, I threw that last one in there gratuitously). So your high temps in October and your low temps in April are part of those extremes.

Really sad to see how many people still buy into this silliness. About the only people who still believe it, or claim to believe it, are those who make their living from so called 'green' jobs. Or just gullible fools. I think most people fall into the gullible category. They hear people talking about it all the time, and don't bother to look at the facts, and the data.

This cold spell might be a harbinger of worse things to come.

Heaven forfend. You mean, the climate might be changing? And this is news how? You mean the climate has never changed before? There wasn't a Medieval Warm period, followed by a cold period? There was never an Ice Age? Man, some people are just such fools.

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It was snowing here in Noborito tonight. Enough to make snowballs from the snow on my car. Crazy!

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global warming is making some places colder, wetter.

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Global warming? Great site to check out is www.plantsneedco2.org.

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And while the tempurature in Tokyo is way below normal today, the Washington D.C. area is 8C above normal today (26C)

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There is snow in Nagano. Strange weather. I wonder if it will hurt the strawberries.

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I appreciate the cold weather, especially when I have to squeeze onto a crowded bus or train. In the summer, it's like an oven there.

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It's snowing in Chiba right now. All the rooftops are covered. Four months ago it would have been perfect. In the back end of April, it's just not right.

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Watch for the price of veges to skyrocket.

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I believe GW is here to stay. Shorter and colder winters, hotter and longer summers, but I wish I was wrong.

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I wouldn't be surprised at all. I had snow in Minneapolis in April but ten years ago. And I had snow twice in central Texas in the last two years.

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With the misunderstanding of global warming, I have to question how many of you went to school regularly. GW does account for all sorts of irregular weather patterns including snow at odd times. Perhaps it would help some of you to use the term "climate change" instead?

Are we blaming climate change for snow and cold in April? Well, taking into account spring like weather in January and February, it does not seem unreasonable. It does not make it true, but beats the uneducated tut-tutting of "I thought the whole Earth was going to get hot! GW must be wrong!" Repeating high school might not be such a bad idea for some of you.

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"The Day After Tomorrow" much?

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Ah, well... it beats it being hot too soon, for too long. I'd rather have temperatures like this where you can get buy with a jacket and be in relative comfort at home, with perhaps a little 'stove' assistance, than deal with the buckets of sweat of near 40 degree temps plus humidity.

As for all the people who think that because the term is 'Global WARMing' that it should be hotter, you provide some pretty good laughs.

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As long as the climate change deniers are out in force, we all ought to be forewarned that their rants are going to get worse. The volcano in Iceland is adding a lot of ash to the atmosphere. We will wind up with cold cold cold and then blistering hot. Up to now, forest fires the world over have been pumping up the particulate levels, and now this volcano.

I am wondering what the climate is going to be like when things do clear up eventually. The clock is ticking, but this Iceland volcano is a pretty big snooze button.

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It might surprise some to hear we just had the warmest March on record, globally

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Hahaha 'global warming'... wow 50 years!!! If you don't thump a bible you'd know that this rock has been here more than 6000 years so 50 years is less than a blink of an eye in time.

I just can't wait for volcanos to be blamed on 'global warming'. Then we'll truly know that those 'global warming' people are 'tards. Hey if we get 4 worldwide volcanos going off within days of each other we could head into 'global freezing' and that I would truly fear because there is proof that has occured before. Not only history but science can prove it would happen. This is the same science that CLEARLY shows that man made global warming as sold by the 'tards is BS.

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We should not wait until the deserts are covered with snow to start to worry.

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Knowbetter Your wish is granted! An article in the British Daily Telegraph said that "scientists" are now claiming that volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the like can all be attributed to "Global Warming." The biggest load of crap I have ever read. After the coldest winter in the Northern Hemisphere in 100 years, they are still telling us its because of "Global Warming?" Like another poster said above - everything is being blamed on GW these days. How long before more and more people wake up to the fact that it is one big SCAM?

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Climate change is natural, get used to it. Its been happening for thousands of years. It has absolutely nothing to do with the activities of puny human beings. So we had a cold April day this year, so what? Its just a natural cycle, cold and warm, cold and warm, for thousands of years. Nothing for Al Gore, the Chief High Priest of the GW religion, to get excited about.

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