🏯 Tokyo Weather

Four seasons, a rainy spell, and typhoons

Tokyo has a humid subtropical climate with four distinct seasons, but its year is punctuated by two uniquely East Asian features: the early-summer rainy season and the late-summer typhoons. Between them sits a hot, humid summer and, in contrast, a winter that is cold, dry, and remarkably sunny.

Tsuyu and humid summers

In June and early July, the "tsuyu" rainy season settles in — weeks of grey skies, high humidity, and steady rain as a seasonal front stalls over Japan. It gives way to a hot, sticky midsummer, with August highs around 88°F (31°C) and oppressive humidity that makes the city feel even warmer.

Typhoon season and dry winters

From August through October, typhoons can sweep up from the Pacific, bringing torrential rain and powerful winds that occasionally paralyze the metropolis. Winters flip the script entirely: cold, crisp, and dry, with January highs around 50°F (10°C), abundant sunshine, and snow only a few times a year.

Tokyo is fairly wet, averaging about 60 inches (1,520 mm) of rain a year, concentrated in the rainy season and typhoon months. Spring brings the cherry blossoms and autumn the brilliant foliage — the two seasons Tokyoites cherish most, with mild, comfortable weather.

Four seasons, a rainy front, and typhoons

Tokyo has a humid subtropical climate with four vivid seasons the culture celebrates — from the cherry blossoms of spring to the fiery autumn leaves. Early summer brings the 'tsuyu' rainy season in June, a stretch of grey, damp weather as a stationary front parks over Japan.

Midsummer is hot and oppressively humid, and late summer into autumn is typhoon season, when powerful storms sweeping up from the Pacific can lash the metropolis with wind and torrential rain. Winters, by contrast, are cool, dry, and remarkably sunny on the Pacific side, with crisp clear days and only rare snow in the city itself.