2018 Northeast Asia heat wave
Throughout much of July 2018, a record-breaking heat wave affected large areas of Japan, Korean peninsula, China. Many areas in Japan experienced temperatures in excess of , and Kumagaya recorded a maximum temperature of on 23 July – the highest ever observed in the country. Synopsis. Following flooding and mudslides that lasted from late June through mid-July 2018, an extensive heat wave spread across the Japanese mainland. In the prefectures that had been hit the worst by floods and landslides, Hiroshima, Okayama, and Ehime, 145 people were hospitalized with heat stroke symptoms as temperatures there  rose above . On 15 July, 200 out of 927 stations in the nationwide observation network recorded maximum temperatures exceeding . On 23 July, a high temperature of was observed in Kumagaya, northwest of Tokyo. This constitutes an all-time high for all of Japan. Many cities recorded temperatures near on this day. In Kyoto, temperatures stood above for seven days in a row for the first time since records began to be kept in the 19th century. By 24 July, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) called the event a natural disaster and indicated many areas were observing "unprecedented levels of heat