Climate

Japan has two general climate types: A marine or oceanic climate, and a tropical climate. There are two periods of heavy rain, in June and September. Between these periods, the country is hot, humid, and rainless, with typhoons for a few months after summer. The average temperature can range from as low as 28°F to as high as 86°F. Source: Atlapedia


Generally, it is colder and winters are longer in northern parts of Japan, and as you go south it gets warmer, with more typhoons.
source: http://www.env.go.jp/en/nature/npr/wetland/vegetation.html


Let's take a look at two cities located in different climate zones. Sapporo, located up north, has an annual temperature range of 60.5°F and an annual precipitation range of 88.4mm. Osaka, located more south, has an annual temperature range of 55.1°F and an annual precipitation range of 140.7mm. These ranges are far more extreme than Honolulu's, which are very mild: Honolulu's temperature range is 22.6°F, while its precipitation range is a mere 2.98mm. Both Sapporo and Osaka experience moderate to high seasonality, far more than Honolulu. (source: Wikipedia articles)

1 comment:

  1. BanphrionsaSeptember 10, 2013 at 7:51 PM

    How did you come across a 60.5 F annual temperature range for Sapporo? When I looked for data on the average temperatures for each month I came up with a Maximum monthly average of 71.6 F in August and a Minimum monthly average of 30.6 F which gives an annual temperature range of 41 F. Can you show or link to the data you used? It isn't clear how you got them or which wikipedia article the individual information came from. Below is the data I found. The precipitation range is close to what I found though.

    http://www.climatemps.com/graph-sm/sapporo_files/image001.gif

    You are correct that they both have much stronger seasonality than Honolulu. (Dr. G)

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