WHY JAPAN IS REFUSING TO COOL DOWN EVEN IN OCTOBER

The reason Japan still feels like midsummer is because of a large ocean anomaly that is also driving record temperatures across the Pacific in the USA.

This "freak" weather event is an expanding and record-breaking marine heat wave in the North Pacific Ocean, effectively a 5000 mile-wide blob of excessively warm water, stretching all the way from China to California.

The drivers of such an expansive, severe and long-lasting ocean anomaly are multifaceted and complex. First a multitude of La Niña events in recent years have caused warm waters to build up in the West Pacific.

Then on top of this, there are two concurrent marine heat waves impacting the North Pacific Ocean at the same time. The first one began in April near eastern Asia, where both China and Japan have just recorded their hottest summers on record.

The second marine heat wave has developed more recently, in the north-eastern Pacific, extending from near Hawaii to the West Coast of the USA. This was caused by weaker winds, which have reduced evaporational cooling of surface waters.

The giant blob of warm water created by these factors has now pushed the North Pacific jet stream North causing serious changes also in the North American climate, which is now expected to see record-breaking temperatures in October.

But essentially these so-called temporary phenomena are amplified by an underlying steady rise in global temperatures.

The only hope is that perhaps one of Japan's many volcanoes will now erupt and throw up a nice, cooling blanket of volcanic dust. But be careful what you wish for!

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