More Mid-Year Abnormal Weather’s Negative Effects

Osaka - Thursday, December 23, 2010




Countries around the globe were effected by abnormal weather this year around July, and many countries in northern hemisphere including Japan suffered from extreme heat, as explained in the previous article Abnormal Weather Worldwide – Why and Effects. It is surprising to know from recent TV programmes in Japan that the negative effect still prevails which are likely to increase. This is about Japan but the same phenomenon may well apply to other countries worldwide as well.



1. How has the weather been since September in Japan?



The temperature has been higher than previous years in general, and in December there have been days that are much warmer and days that are much colder than normally in this time of the year. The warm days are assumed to be due to the global warming and extreme heat in summer of northern hemisphere, and the cold days are due to unusually strong cold air that occasionally covers Japan this time of the year. The drastic up and down of temperature is similar to what it was in spring, and people are having difficulties to cope with the drastic temperature fluctuation.



2. What are some specific negative effects of mid-year abnormal weather at this time of the year?




1) Increase in egg price



Egg price has gone up by almost 20% in the last few months for 2 reasons. One is the fact that many chickens have been killed with break out of pandemic bird flu earlier this year (around May) in Miyazaki prefecture and recent outbreak in Tottori prefecture. The other is the mid-year extreme heat.



The extreme heat in summer was a great stress to chickens that survived the pandemic flu outbreak as well as to humans. This made them bearing fewer eggs than usual even if they did bear (e.g. chickens that usually bear 2 eggs bear only 1 this year), and the eggs they bore are all smaller than the ones they usually bear.



Thus, extreme heat led to egg shortage and increase in egg price, as much as by 20% in the last few months, negatively impacting Christmas and Japanese New Year necessity businesses as well as the overall Japanese citizens. Christmas cake manufacturers are severely hit by the egg price increase because egg is inevitable in making cakes. Companies that make and sell “dashimaki”, a Japanese food made from egg always included in “osechi”, the Japanese traditional New Year cuisine, are also severely hit.



2) Increase in red salmon price and negative effect on local employment



The price of red salmon, another inevitable ingredient for “osechi”, also increased drastically as much as by 50%. This is because due to mid-year extreme heat the average sea temperature from September to December has been 1-2℃ higher than previous years, and therefore red salmons that prefer lower sea temperature do not come to coastal shore, the usual fishing zone.



Similar phenomenon has been pointed out for many other fisheries, all attributing to global warming; however, the case of red salmon　for this year is prominent. Red salmons caught this year are only 60% of previous year level even when fishermen have been working longer hours.



Decrease in yield of red salmons has not only led to increase in price but also started to negatively affect employment of local fishing cities, where their economy and employment rely on fishery.



3. The author’s final thoughts



The TV programmes reported the above 2 cases as negative effects of mid-year extreme heat but the author feels it is also the result of the long year global warming. It is just that the phenomenon is prominent this year because of the mid-year extreme heat we had this year, and that the ingredients whose price have gone up rapidly this time of the year are of cuisines essential for winter seasonal greetings in Japan. Therefore focusing on businesses of such hard-hit winter seasonal cuisines, saying that they are all due to mid-year extreme was an effective tactic for mass media because it was timely and newsworthy, being able to attract interest and attention of audience.



From everyday shopping, the author has realized that prices of other foods are also above previous year level, higher than normal inflation rate. This is mentioned occasionally, reason being abnormal weather, and some experts estimate that the total cost of foods per household in Japan would likely to go up by as much as 50% after New Year. The true negative effects of mid-year extreme heat of 2010 are yet to come, and it would directly affect lives of people in Japan and possibly worldwide.