Japan Wants a Bigger Role In Science of Extreme Weather Attribution
Nation’s new research center aims to pinpoint the role of climate change in heat waves to typhoons
The evening sunlight shines through buildings in Tokyo last July. The global average temperature reached 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in 2024.
Photographer: Soichiro Koriyama/BloombergMeteorologists and climate detectives are ramping up their focus on a relatively young but increasingly active field of science: finding human fingerprints in extreme weather events.
Scientists in Japan launched a new effort Tuesday dedicated to figuring out how much human-induced global warming can be blamed for individual weather disasters that impact the world’s fourth-largest economy. The initiative comes after 2024 was confirmed as the hottest year on record, and on the heels of both Japan’s biggest wildfire in half a century in March and record-breaking snowfall a month earlier.