Japan reveals new name for 40C-and-hotter days after blistering summer

Japan introduces a new official term, 'kokushobi,' to describe days exceeding 40°C, following a record-breaking and deadly summer heatwave. | Contesto: cronaca

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• Japan reveals new name for 40C-and-hotter days after blistering summer

Contesto

The Japanese government has formally introduced a new meteorological term, 'kokushobi,' to describe days where the temperature reaches or exceeds 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The announcement, made by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), follows the nation's hottest summer on record, a season marked by prolonged, lethal heatwaves that strained infrastructure, threatened public health, and shattered previous temperature benchmarks. The term itself translates to "cruelly hot," "brutally hot," or "severely hot," a linguistic escalation from the previously used 'moshobi' for extremely hot days above 35°C. The creation of 'kokushobi' is a direct bureaucratic and cultural response to a stark climatic shift. For decades, the 35°C threshold defined extreme heat in Japan. However, the frequency of days soaring past 40°C has moved from rare anomaly to recurring summer feature. This past summer saw numerous regions, including the capital Tokyo, repeatedly breach this once-unthinkable mark. The new terminology is intended to convey a greater sense of urgency and danger to the public, signaling that conditions at 40°C and above represent a distinct and more severe category of threat requiring specific behavioral and institutional responses. The significance of this lexical shift extends beyond meteorology into public safety and social policy. Health officials hope the starkness of 'kokushobi' will cut through public complacency, prompting more people to heed warnings, stay indoors, use cooling centers, and check on vulnerable neighbors. The past summer resulted in tens of thousands of heat-related hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths, overwhelming emergency services. By formally naming the phenomenon, authorities aim to standardize emergency protocols for municipalities and businesses, potentially triggering mandatory measures like school closures, adjusted work hours, and enhanced power grid management during declared 'kokushobi' days. This development is rooted in a long-term warming trend that has fundamentally altered Japan's climate. Scientists point to a combination of global climate change and localized urban heat island effects, where concrete...

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Categoria: cronaca