Wednesday, July 25, 2001

Record heat wave has Kanto Plain residents looking for respite

By Jennifer H. Svan, Tokyo bureau chief

Rick Chernitzer / Stars and Stripes Petty Officer 3rd Class Darren Koster, 21, from the USS Chancellorsville, gulps down some water Tuesday after a run from one of the water stations set up around Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan.

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The grass is turning brown and air condition units are on overdrive during this year’s scorching summer on the Kanto Plain, one of the hottest on record so far.

Temperatures in July are averaging 93 degrees at Yokota Air Base, 10 degrees above the average, according to Sgt. Gary Hall, assistant chief of weather station operations for 374th Operational Support Squadron weather flight.

Since July 1, it’s been 90 degrees or hotter on all but four days. Monday, the mercury topped 100 degrees for the third time this month. The hottest day so far was July 12’s 103 degrees, an all-time high for July at Yokota according to records that date back to 1947.

This month, there were six days it was 95 degrees or hotter, exceeding the past record of four days with those temperatures set in July 1961, said Choyei Kameya, of the Japan Meteorlogical Agency.

“We’re hotter and drier,” Hall said, noting that there wasn’t much of a rainy season this year.

Average precipitation at Yokota in June is 7.4 inches; this year, 3.9 inches fell, the least since June 1996. Rainfall in July so far is 0.5 inches, well below the 6.7-inch average.

“It’s super, super dry,” Hall said.

Despite scant moisture, there are no plans for water restrictions on base, said Lt. Col. John Ahern, commander of 374th Civil Engineer Squadron.

The heat, however, is taxing base air conditioning systems.

“We’ve had a lot of air conditioning outages,” Ahern said.

Though the cost of air conditioning on base this summer has not been quantified, Ahern said electrical costs are probably up, as air conditioners are running longer, and electricity costs more than it used to.

Yokota residents are taking shelter from the heat in air-conditioned homes or offices.

“All I want to do is go swimming or stay in the AC,” said Kim Ciambotti, a military spouse at Yokota.

Heat stress conditions, as set by officials at Yokota, have reached “black” four times in July. Servicemembers in 730th Air Mobility Support Squadron who have to work outside on the flight line are provided with sports drinks as well as water, said squadron commander Col. Kenneth Wavering.

On the extremely hot days, “they can’t be out there all day,” he said. “Every hour they have to be able to come back in and get cooled down.”

The outlook for the rest of the summer is much of the same.

“We don’t expect much of a significant break until September,” Hall said.

The Japan Meteorological Agency predicts temperatures from now till Aug. 29 to be higher than the average of 81 degrees. A strong Pacific high pressure system from the east Philippines Sea, fueled by warmer ocean temperatures, will continue to heat up the Kanto Plain, Kameya said.

That pressure system, which usually gets stronger as the summer progresses, for some reason built up much faster this year, Hall said.

“This [weather] is a bit more common for August and September,” he said. “We jumped right into a late summer weather pattern.”

Hall said the rainy season is a weather front between a cold air mass in the north and warmer air to the south. That front progressed northward over Japan much faster this year.

The meteorological agency says it can’t forecast the number of typhoons expected to hit the Kanto Plain, but Hall said warmer temperatures earlier in the summer may mean more typhoons in August and September, traditionally the biggest typhoon months in Japan.

Sea surface temperatures are warmer than normal and typhoons feed off low level warm air, Hall said.

“Logic dictates the potential for more typhoons and maybe earlier,” he said.

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