Japan has issued fresh health warnings amid temperatures of 40C (106F) that extremely hot days "are expected to continue until early August." Japan has recorded its highest ever temperature during the deadly heat wave.
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Japanese officials on Monday warned people to be extremely careful to avoid heatstroke in areas where temperatures are 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) and above. The country's disaster management agency has encouraged people to use air conditioning, drink enough water and take regular rest breaks at work.
Soaring temperatures
Japan has been hit with intense heat for the last two weeks. Kumagaya, a city north of Tokyo, hit 41.1C on Monday, setting a new national temperature record. Ome, a Tokyo suburb, recorded 40.3C — the first time temperatures over 40 have been recorded in the capital's metropolitan area. Kyoto's annual Gion Matsuri parade was canceled on Sunday following seven straight days above 38 degrees.
Officials last week said at least 12 people had died, including a young schoolboy who collapsed during a school field trip. More than 12,000 others were hospitalized during the first two weeks of July. The death toll may have at least doubled since then: 11 people were reported to have died on Saturday alone across Japan. The figure is expected to be updated during the week.
"People should be all the more careful as many people must be exhausted after days of cruelly hot weather," meteorologist Minako Sakurai told France's AFP news agency.
Japan 2020 Summer Olympics
This year's record temperatures have renewed concerns about the Summer Olympics that will be held in Tokyo in two years. The city's governor on Monday compared the current heat wave with "living in a sauna." Yuriko Koike vowed to take countermeasures against the heat to ensure a successful event in 2020.
Germany's heat wave: Shining sun and burning fields
Germany's recent spate of sunshine, heat and lack of rain has been a boon for sunbathers. But there is a dark side to this heat wave: forest fires, dry soil and withered crops have farmers worried about their harvests.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Gohlke
Unusually dry
In northeastern Germany, there has been hardly any rainfall in recent months. The country's weather service says Saxony-Anhalt received just 15 liters of rainfall per square meter — roughly a quarter of the average. Across Germany, there were just 50 liters of rainfall per square meter, half of the usual amount. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania received more sunshine than any other German state.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Unpredictable weather
The little rain that fell came down very unevenly across Germany. In May, the country's weather service warned of potential forest fires in parts of Lower Saxony. Meanwhile in southwestern Germany, some towns faced torrential rains that flooded cellars and roads, such as here in Fischbach, Rhineland-Palatinate.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Foto/Hosser/C. Schulz
Fire alert!
The danger of forest fires is extremely high right now throughout the country. The state of Brandenburg faces the biggest threat. In recent weeks, authorities have been forced to put out more than 100 fires. Recently, 100 hectares of forest and wheat crops burned to the ground in the Oder-Spree region. Brandenburg authorities reported that 90 percent of fires are inadvertently caused by humans.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Woitas
Busy times for firefighters
It took 40 firefighters 13 hours to extinguish the flames sweeping through Brandenburg's Oder-Spree region. A fire in Rostock, meanwhile, was not caused by humans — but by a bird. Police say the animal caused an electricity cable to short circuit, which then set a nearby field ablaze.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Gohlke
Tapping into new sources
Saxony-Anhalt's firefighters, meanwhile, are so busy they needed to get creative to find new sources of water. So they headed to a nearby pool to refill their tanks. The dryness, meanwhile, not only makes fires more likely but also poses a major threat to farmers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Woitas
Early harvests, low yields
The unusually dry weather has forced many farmers to harvest their crops early. The German Farmers' Association has stated that even April was too warm and dry. The following months meant wheat crops ripened much faster than expected, though insufficient rain has produced a low yield. Sudden torrential rainfall, meanwhile, made matters worse by destroying parts of the crops.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
Crop failures on the cards
Potatoes, sugar cane and corn are usually harvested in autumn. They require much more water than wheat and rapeseed. So due to the unusually dry weather, Germany's corn plants are in bad shape. The German Farmers' Association president, Joachim Rukwied, is pessimistic and fears crop failures could jeopardize the livelihoods of many farmers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
No water in sight
There are two kind of drought: "Drought in a meteorological sense refers to a drop in rainfall within one month below the long-term average," says Stephan Tober of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research. This causes a drought in the agricultural sense, meaning that there is too little water in the ground. That's a problem for wheat and meadows on the banks of river Elbe here in Dresden.
Image: Imago/R. Michael
Vegetation adapts to heat
"Extreme dry spells can cause long-term damage to trees and recovery takes a long time," says Ingolf Kühn of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research. Vegetation has a memory, so to speak, and may adapt if there are several consecutive years with little rainfall. Some German cities have now called on residents to help out in watering trees, so that some day, cacti will not replace trees.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Völker
Problems on the River Rhine
The Rhine River and its tributaries have lowered to dangerous levels, leading to restrictions in shipping. The Mannheim office of the federal Waterway and Shipping Department confirmed that, until conditions change, ships in the upper Rhine can only be loaded with 1500 tons of cargo, down from their usual weight of 3000 or more.