Record heat today in northern Japan, as the thermometer in Sapporo exceeded 25 degrees Celsius today, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency JMA.

Located in the coldest region of Japan, Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics and holds a very popular snow festival every February, with huge ice sculptures.

It is the first time temperatures in Sapporo have exceeded 25 degrees Celsius so early in the year since statistics began to be kept in the city in 1877, Tsuichi Yoshida, an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s regional center in Tokyo, told AFP. Hokkaido Island.

The average temperature in Sapporo for April 15 is 11.5 degrees Celsius and the previous early heat record was set on April 20, 1998, when the thermometer read 25.1 degrees Celsius in the city.

The Japan Meteorological Agency considers 25 degrees Celsius to be a summer temperature in Japan, according to its current registration system.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that climate change played a role” in this record early heat in Sapporo, Yoshida added.

Early record heat temperatures for the season are becoming less and less rare around the world. For example, Sweden experienced in early April the earliest start of summer the country has ever seen, with temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius for five consecutive days in three cities in its south.

Globally, where a new temperature record was set in March, the last 12 months were the hottest ever recorded on the planet (+1.58 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels), according to the European Copernicus Observatory.