where in Japan is most Oaklandish?

March 19, 2009 4:36 PM

I'm from Oakland California but live in Japan. I'm trying to figure out which area in Japan has similar weather to Oakland.

I was trying to use this tool to look up various cities in Japan and compare them to Oakland but I wasn't finding any similar patterns. It would help if someone could help me understand what makes weather in Oakland unique to Oakland and what makes weather in Japan unique to Japan. It's possible that Oakland is too unique and there is no similar place in Japan. I would like to know that too. Humidity seems to be a big difference. I live in Osaka where the summer is hotter (more humid), the winter is cooler, and it rains more than Oakland. Meteorologists, amateur of otherwise, please stand up.

posted by Infernarl to science & nature (11 comments total)

The climate on the west coast of the US is moderated by the Japan Current. It relies on prevailing winds, which blow from west to east. Because of that, winters are (relatively) warm and summers are (relatively) cool; it's because there's a huge heat sink just to the west, and all the weather blows in from over that heat sink whose temperature is pretty stable year round.

The same kind of thing moderates the weather in Europe. But it doesn't moderate the weather on the East Coast of the US to anything like the same extent, because weather blows into New York from south and west, not from the east (most of the time).

And it doesn't moderate the weather in Japan very much, for the same reason.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:53 PM on March 19

I think your weather is mostly air coming off of mainland asia, whereas coastal California's weather is from pacific air. So Oakland will be more temperate. The lack of humidity in Oakland I think may also be due to this; when the air is over the land it is warming up, which increases its capacity for moisture (thus decreasing the relative humidity).

But when it's colder on the land than over the sea, then Oakland also gets 100% humidity fog that San Francisco is famous for - but it's chilly so it doesn't feel the same as warm-weather humidity.
posted by aubilenon at 4:57 PM on March 19

Not a meteorologist, but I've lived in Japan and San Francisco and I'm pretty weather sensitive. My opinion is that you're not going to find anything that's going to make you very happy. Japan has four seasons. Oakland has two (fire and land-slide).

No place in Japan has weather that's any where nearly as mild as the Bay Area. The dramatic difference in ocean current, weather patterns and mountains in the two areas aren't going to give you much satisfaction. The further south you go the milder the winters, but the harsher the summers, and more, stronger typhoons. North has mild summers, but it snows. The pacific side gets a lot more rain year round and the Sea of Japan isn't big enough to blunt the weather coming off of China.

My best guess would be to try the water's edge along the triangle that north Kyushu, south Chugoku and northwest Shikoku. (Hiroshima, Fukuoka would be the biggest cities) Probably warmer than you're used to, but might be sheltered enough. But then again there is probably a reason none of the biggest cities are there.

Although I complain about the weather most when I'm in Japan, I really miss having actual weather and four celebrated seasons when I'm not there.
posted by Ookseer at 4:59 PM on March 19

Oakland is hardly unique: Victoria, BC, where I live, has an almost identical climate (while Vancouver and Seattle, which are just a little north and south of us, are a little colder and much more rainy.

I believe Oakland has what's called a Mediterranean climate: cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers. Japan has a temperate, subtropical climate: cool winters (which are wet or dry, depending on whether or not you're on the Japan Sea coast of the Pacific seaboard), with a tropical climate in the far south (Okinawa) and a continental climate (cool summers, cold, snowy winters) in the north in Hokkaido).

Japan is affected by high pressure systems from Siberia and northeast Asian in winter and early spring; as the jet stream shifts northward in spring, the monsoon moves over Japan by early June, creating the rainy season. The monsoon is anchored in place by high pressure systems from the north Pacific (which is why the rainy season never reaches Hokkaido).

Japan's torrid summers are a result of high pressure systems from Pacific that move up over the country, starting in July. These tropical systems are massive, and carry a lot of heat; hot are can carry you a lot of moisture.

I've traveled to northern Honshu in August, and it can be a little cooler than Osaka (I used to live near there), but these hot tropical high pressure systems usually reach all the way to Aomori.

The Kansai region, where Osaka is, is no more hotter than Fukui or Ishikawa, further north on the Sea of Japan. Osaka itself will get hotter than the surrounding area because of the heat island effect.

Typhoons usually travel from west to east along the Japanese archipelago. Sometimes Osaka lies in their path, sometimes not.

In winter, Osaka benefits from the mountains that range along the archipelago from east to west. Cold, dry air masses from northeast Asian and Siberia travel across the Sea of Japan, and pick up moisture. These air masses bump into the mountains along the Sea of Japan, resulting in a lot of precipitation, usually snow.

So the winter in Kyoto and Osaka and the eastern seaboard, including Nagoya and Tokyo, is mild and dry. But if you take a train maybe 90 minutes north to Tsuruga, on the Japan Sea coast, you'll experience some of the deepest snowfalls in the world.

In terms of climate, I doubt Fukuoka will be an easier place to live than Osaka. The only way to deal with Japanese summers is to embrace it... and dress appropriately. Linen shirts, breathable fabrics, and handkerchiefs (hand towels are considered childlike or low class).
posted by KokuRyu at 5:32 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

There really isn't anywhere in Japan that will be similar to Oakland. Your best bet would be to take a vacation in Spain. California has a Mediterranean climate (Csb in the Koppen climate classification system, where the s indicates dry summers). Summers are dominated by subtropical high pressure, while the cold ocean current helps keep temperatures from getting too high. Polar front activity during the winter will bring some precipitation and cooler temperatures, although proximity to the ocean keeps it fairly mild.

Japan, on the other hand, is humid subtropical (Cfa) in the south and humid continental (Dfa/Dfb) in the north. It's much more similar to the eastern United States. KokuRyu provides a lot more detail than I can on the variations around the country.
posted by weathergal at 5:47 PM on March 19

Here's a map of the Köppen climate zones for you to compare Oakland and Japan. As everyone else has said, most of Japan's climate is similar to the eastern and southeastern United States. You'll have to put up with a lot more humidity than the SF Bay Area no matter where you live in Japan.

Although I've never been, Sendai's climate is relatively mild compared to points further north or south. It still gets more snow and is colder than Oakland, though.
posted by armage at 7:26 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Japan does not have Oakland weather. Sendai gets a lot of snow, but the winter there is not as long as it is in Aomori, and the summers are not as humid as Tokyo. Shizuoka is supposed to have good weather, but I've only been there during spring when almost every place in Japan is nice.
posted by betweenthebars at 10:27 PM on March 19

Given that Japan is a relatively small Island one would not expect great differences between the climate within Japan.

Hence is seems unlikely that anywhere would be similar to California.
posted by mary8nne at 9:12 AM on March 20

If you look at the Köppen climate zones you'll see that all places with Mediterranean climates are on the western edge of continents with a big ocean to one side, in other words it's a pretty rare type of climate. Japan, like most of the rest of the world does not fit these criteria.
posted by ob at 9:53 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

Given that Japan is a relatively small Island one would not expect great differences between the climate within Japan.

Actually, the country is spread out across a long distance from north to south, and so there is a lot of variety in climate.

Wakkanai, Japan's most northerly point, lies on the the 45th parallel. Wakkanai's average annual temperature is 7 degrees.

The Yaeyama Islands, in Okinawa, lie on the 24 parallel; the Tropic of Cancer, the start of the tropics, lies at approx 23 degrees.

I lived on the Japan Sea coast. Rice planting started in May, and the harvest was completed in mid-September.

However, if I drove southeast for about an hour, over the mountains, to the Nobi plain (Nagoya region), there would typically be two rice harvests each year; the second harvest would end in late October.

It's a little cooler in the autumn on the north side of the mountains.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:24 AM on March 20

I would add that the reason why Japan is uniformly hot in summer (except in Hokkaido) is because the Pacific high pressure systems are so massive and so powerful.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:25 AM on March 20