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Has the climate in Okinawa changed?

Okinawa has warmed about 1.3°F between 1971 and 2003.

About 0.4°F per decade, measured from Okinawa's official daily weather records, 1971–2003. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Okinawa's climate has warmed more slowly than most other cities in Japan.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
about the same
1970s
0 / yr
Recent
0 / yr
Winters about as cold as before
Average temperature
+0.8°F
1970s
72.7°F
Recent
73.5°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
23 more days
1970s
17 / yr
Recent
40 / yr
More days of serious heat
Rainy days
23 fewer days
1970s
173 / yr
Recent
150 / yr
Drier on average

Okinawa's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2003.

70°72°74°76°1971: 72.3°F1972: 72.5°F1973: 72.8°F1974: 73.1°F1975: 72.2°F1976: 72.3°F1977: 72.9°F1978: 72.6°F1979: 73.3°F1980: 73.5°F1981: 71.7°F1982: 73.3°F1983: 73.8°F1984: 72.5°F1985: 72.3°F1986: 72.1°F1987: 72.8°F1988: 72.9°F1989: 72.7°F1990: 73.2°F1991: 73.9°F1992: 72.9°F1993: 73.4°F1994: 73.5°F1995: 72.7°F1996: 73.2°F1997: 73.4°F1998: 74.7°F2001: 74.5°F2002: 73.7°F2003: 73.3°Flong-term trend1971198019902003
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 5 more days above 90°F compared with the 1970s.

When in the year the change shows up

How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s. Useful if you garden or care about a particular season — otherwise the headline above already has the answer.

-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°January: +0.9°F+0.9JFebruary: +0.4°F+0.4FMarch: +0.6°F+0.6MApril: +0.8°F+0.8AMay: +0.5°F+0.5MJune: +0.6°F+0.6JJuly: +0.8°F+0.8JAugust: +0.8°F+0.8ASeptember: +0.1°F+0.1SOctober: -0.0°F-0.0ONovember: +0.5°F+0.5NDecember: +0.8°F+0.8D

January has warmed the most — about 0.9°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from the Japan Meteorological Agency, measured at Miyagijima, about 17 km from the city centre.

How we build these numbers →