Japan's summer this year was the hottest since records began 125 years ago, the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) said on Friday.

Based on measurements at 15 locations around the country from June through August, the average temperature deviation was +1.76 degrees Celsius. According to JMA, that exceeded the previous record of +1.08 degrees in 2010.

Average temperatures were considerably higher in the northern, eastern, and western parts of the country, the agency added.

Hot and dry weather in India

And in India, the world's most populous country, this August was not only the hottest but also the driest since national records began more than a century ago, officials said.

The month falls in the middle of India's annual monsoon, which typically brings up to 80% of the country's annual rainfall. But despite heavy rains that caused deadly floods in the north of the country earlier in the month, total rainfall fell well below average.

August saw an average of just 161.7 millimeters, 30.1 mm lower than the previous August record in 2005, the India Meteorological Department said. That has left the country baking in unrelenting heat.

Warmest winter Down Under

While countries in the northern hemisphere are reporting summer temperature records, Australia, in the southern hemisphere, experienced its warmest winter on record.

The June-August season's national mean temperature was 1.53 centigrade above the 1961 to 1990 average, and the highest since records began in 1910, the country's Bureau of Meteorology said. Winter rainfall across the country was meanwhile 4.2% below the 1961 to 1990 average.

The end of an unseasonably hot southern hemisphere winter sets the stage for the potential declaration of El Nino, which is associated with extreme weather phenomena, from wildfires to tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts.

The World Meteorological Organization said last month that El Nino had emerged in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years.

dh/fb (AFP, Reuters)