Weather in Japan this year has shown unusual patterns. In fact, what has happened in various parts of the country defies our common knowledge. Take typhoons. Aside from a record number that hit this summer, one of them -- No. 18, or Songda -- continued unabated. After landing Kyushu, it traveled northeast over the Sea of Japan and struck Hokkaido, where it mowed down trees along the streets in Sapporo. Normally, such a typhoon would have degraded to a low-pressure cyclone before reaching Hokkaido. Another exception was a typhoon in June that took almost the same course as the outsize Muroto Typhoon of September 1934.

The heat wave in Japan was also abnormal, suggesting that the hot season here may be approaching a subtropical zone climate. Plus there was the unusual phenomenon of torrential rains that caused flooding across the country.

Odd signs of climate change have also occurred in much of the rest of the world. In the United States, hurricanes wreaked havoc in parts of the southeastern region. In China, torrential rains ravaged areas along the Yangtze River.