Deadly East Asian heat wave spreads into Japan and Korea

Elizabeth Harball in EE News.net: A long-lasting heat wave centered on the Chinese city of Shanghai has moved northeast into Japan and Korea, shattering high-temperature records and killing at least 10 people over the past week in those countries.

At least six people in South Korea died due to temperatures reaching 104 degrees Fahrenheit, The Korea Herald reported yesterday, with hundreds suffering from heat-related illnesses.

On Sunday, Japanese wire service Jiji Press reported at least four people had died due to heatstroke, including an 80-year-old woman in Wakayama prefecture, where temperatures had soared to a record-breaking 100.6 F. Other news agencies later reported at least nine people had died.

Temperatures in Shimanto, a city in Japan's Kochi prefecture, reached 105.8 F yesterday, the highest temperature ever recorded in the country.

July and August maximum temperatures in Tokyo normally hover around 30 degrees Celsius (86 F), the Japan Meteorological Agency's website shows, although this number has been rising in recent years….

Haze between buildings in Shanghai (in 2007), shot by Carsten Ullrich, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license