Nature Attacks

Japan is a country that experience a variety of weather conditions. Depending on the time of year and the specific location in the country many surprising and unpredictable variations in the weather can be witnessed.

The southern part of Japan has a subtropical climate. This means summers are hot and winters are mild, but the region also experiences large areas of low pressure, known as depressions, which bring heavy rain. These wet periods can last for weeks and often occur in the summer months. This subtropical climate supports many species of monkeys. The northern part of Japan is close to Russia and the weather in this region contrasts quite noticeably to that of southern regions. Large areas of high pressure called anticyclones move in southerly directions, spinning clockwise. This high pressure air brings extremely strong and cold winds from Siberia and the North Pole south to China and northern Japan.

The sea is of extreme importance in Japanese culture, but due to the intense cold in the most northern part of the country, sea ice can build up. When the sea is frozen, special kinds of vessels, called ice-breakers, are needed. These strong ships are specially designed to break the ice apart to make paths for other ships to travel safety. Japan also has the Black Stream Current, sometimes called the Japan Current.This acts in a similar way to the Gulf Stream, which is an ocean current bringing warm waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the UK. The Gulf Stream means the UK has a much milder climate than it should. Thanks to the Black Stream Current, which carries warm waters up from Taiwan, Japan has its own coral reef. This is the northernmost coral reef in the world. Without the black Stream Current, it would not be possible for corals to survive at this latitude.