Japan’s ‘2050 Weather Forecast’ highlights extreme heat in the future

As extreme heat becomes an increasingly visible reality across Japan, meteorologists, scientists, businesses and professional footballers are joining forces to encourage stronger climate action and raise awareness of the risks posed by global warming.A newly updated climate awareness initiative in Japan is drawing attention to what life could look like in 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions continue their current trajectory.The initiative, which has as its centerpiece the 2050 Weather Forecast video, comes as Japan grapples with increasingly severe heat. The newly introduced term kokushobi, or “extreme heat day”, describes days when temperatures reach 40°C or higher. Such conditions have regularly dominated national headlines, while reports that three lions died from heat stroke at a Tokyo Zoo have further highlighted the growing impacts of rising temperatures.When tomorrow arrives ahead of scheduleThe new video updates an earlier forecast produced by Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, in 2014 as part of a campaign by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which dramatically highlights how weather reports in 2050 will be characterized by extreme heat. Featuring the same weat...