Totally tropical Tokyo. “Tokyo is becoming tropical. But heat from buildings and cars rather than global climate change is mostly to blame,

say Japanese meteorologists. Torrential rain has wreaked havoc in the city, prompting Japan’s Environment Agency

to plan a city-scale experiment to tackle the problem.

Warm, humid air rises from Tokyo during the day, forming water-laden cumulonimbus clouds as it cools, says

Fumiaki Fujibe of the Meteorological Research Institute in Tsukuba Science City, 70 kilometres east of Tokyo. These

clouds cause torrential rain and thunderstorms in the early evening–as in the tropics.”