Mainichi Daily News, May 22, 2005
Northern and eastern Japan will have cool weather in June and a summer possibly less sultry than usual because of cool air caused by high atmospheric pressure over the Sea of Okhotsk off Hokkaido, weather officials have said.
The Sea of Okhotsk didn't produce high atmospheric pressure last year and, as a result, major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka saw record-level summer heat.
Officials of the Meteorological Agency said that the Sea of Okhotsk high atmospheric pressure appeared in early May, two to three weeks earlier than average.
Influenced by this, the northern and eastern Japan regions had cool days 3 to 5 degrees Celsius lower than normal in mid-May.
(Full Story)
After the hellish tempertures from last year I really hope this story is correct. Damn it was HOT last year!