The first municipality in Japan to provide its own weather forecast service! Hitachi City Otenki Sodanjo (Weather Information Bureau) records valuable meteorological data.

Date of interview	May 23, 2022
Interviewee	Keisuke Ikeda, Certified Weather Forecaster, Hitachi City Weather Information Bureau

First could you give us an overview of Hitachi City Weather Information Bureau?

The Weather Information Bureau celebrated its 70^th anniversary on June 1 this year, which was originally established in 1952. Its predecessor was an observatory that was built on the summit of Mount Kamine in 1910. In the old days, the sulfur in the smoke that was emitted by copper smelting sites near the Hitachi Mines withered significant plant populations and caused increasing numbers of health issues in the area, so the companies took the initiative in implementing measures to address the issue with the support of the local community, and constructed tall smokestacks to disperse the smoke, which occurred more than 100 years ago. Back then, the observatory always had a staff posted, apparently to monitor the smoke along with the changing meteorological conditions, based upon which the copper production was apparently reduced when any weather pattern was present that would lead to the smoke causing its negative effects near the ground level.

In 1951 following World War II, the technology became available that could remove the sulfur from the smoke, so the observatory at the Hitachi Mines was no longer necessary for the smoke monitoring purpose. However, as the automation of meteorological observation had not occurred at the time, and the observatory’s ability to monitor weather conditions continuously still provided value, the facility was converted into what would be the first-ever Weather Information Bureau that was municipally operated in Japan in 1952. Until the advent of the automated and networked observation technology that we see today, the staff at the Weather Information Bureau used to check the bar thermometers placed inside instrument shelters and recorded the temperature data in their observation field notes. These valuable records are still available today, allowing us to go back in time over 100 years to review the weather conditions of those days, which also encompass the era of the mine operation.

Although the science of meteorological observation was still primordial back then, the observatory staff that were trained by experts that had studied the latest knowledge in the field were handling the day-to-day operation of weather monitoring. Once the Weather Information Bureau was instituted, Hitachi City would invite staff from the Japan Meteorological Agency to work as the municipality’s employees for training and operational purposes. Today, the full-time staff of the Weather Information Bureau includes certified weather forecasters.
When the weather forecaster certification program was created in 1994, it became a requirement for the Weather Information Bureau to have its own certified weather forecaster on staff. To meet this requirement, an employee at the time studied for the examination and obtained the qualification, averting the crisis of the facility’s possible shutdown. Currently, there are a total of four Hitachi City employees that are certified weather forecasters, of which three are working full-time in that capacity 365 days a year.

Please tell us about your specific observation activities.

After Hitachi City set up the first observatory at the municipal office in 1952, more observatories were built over time. Today, there are a total of seven observatories across Hitachi City. In early years, the observatories were not interconnected through a network, so the staff had to travel to each site to obtain observation data. However, in 2001, a network was established connecting all the observatories to the municipal office through landlines, which allowed the staff to remotely obtain data from the office. Then in 2014, the landline network was upgraded to a mobile phone network, and the scope of observation − which had only included precipitation, a bare minimum metric for disaster prevention purposes − was expanded to also include temperature, wind direction, wind speed, and humidity. As the observatory at the municipal office additionally observe air pressure, solar irradiance, etc., data from all observatories are consolidated and managed at the Weather Information Bureau. In addition, the municipal office routinely monitors the weather and other atmospheric phenomena with the naked eye. Since there are mountains in Hitachi City that are over 600m in elevation, resulting in different weather conditions between locations of different heights (e.g., it may be snowing on those mountains as urban areas experience rainfall), we would like to build more observatories, although that is difficult to do at the moment.

How do you communicate your observation data to the public?

We renovated the websiteof the Weather Information Bureau this past April, and one of its new features is a current data feed from each of the observatories in real time at 10-minute intervals. Also as each of the seven observatories provides its own weather forecast specific to the local area, people can selectively use the information provided by the observatory that is nearest to them. Hitachi City also provides a receiver to each household that is used for the municipality’s radio broadcast for disaster prevention and mitigation, so we are regularly communicating information to the residents through that channel as needed. Especially when there is any imminent danger of a disaster (based on a prediction of an approaching typhoon, major snowfall, etc. or an alert issued on present risk of hyperthermia, etc.), we use the public radio to caution people from time to time. While Hitachi City typically does not have too many hot days out of a given year where the temperature rises to upwards of 35ºC, it also means that many municipal residents are not quite accustomed to high heat. So when we provide a weather forecast that involves a rather abrupt shift in temperature, we make sure that the information is clearly conveyed.

Among all the functions of the municipal government, disaster prevention and mitigation is of the utmost importance. So the Weather Information Bureau provides its own weather forecast data to the Mayor at internal conferences so that correct decisions can be made in setting up evacuation centers and providing evacuation instructions. As the Weather Information Bureau has a permit to provide weather forecasts to the general public, it is not allowed to freely publish its own typhoon prediction, etc. for use by the prefectural residents under the Meteorological Service Act. But since the aforementioned weather forecasting for disaster prevention and mitigation is only used internally within the municipal government, we provide the types of information that we are not allowed to offer to the public, which includes our prediction on when any given typhoon might approach the municipality, what levels of rainfall and total precipitation we should expect, when would be the maximum windspeed, etc. So as we explain all this at the conferences convened by the disaster action headquarters, the information will be used to determine the time by which people should make prepare to evacuate, etc. Indeed, Hitachi City is the only municipality in Japan that has a department fully dedicated to meteorology. When we previously asked other municipalities about their meteorological service, some were outsourcing it to privately-run companies, while others were communicating with meteorological observatories and gathering information from TV and the internet. In the case of Hitachi City, we provide our observation data to the meteorological observatories and exchange information with them daily.

As you celebrated the 70th anniversary of the institution, do you see any particular change in the weather pattern compared to before?

As far as Hitachi City is concerned, we do not see much change in the average temperature. This might have to do with its proximity to the ocean and mountains. In terms of the number of days per year where the temperature reaches 30ºC and above, the figure was around 20 days at most when the Weather Information Bureau was first created, it has become around 20 days at least since the 1990s. In addition, there is a noticeable trend that the number of days with the minimum temperature dropping below 0ºC has been declining.
As for our forecasting of cherry blossoms, it varies significantly from one year to the next, but on average they are blooming increasingly earlier. Back in old days, when schools held their entrance ceremonies for students in April, the cherries were just starting to blossom, but nowadays they are already in full bloom by that time. In recent years, we even see them at peak blossom by the end of March. This could be due to global warming, but other contributing factors might be urbanization, environmental changes in the vicinity, and the aging of our reference cherry trees, etc.

When the municipality planted many trees in the mountains roughly 100 years ago to address the smoke pollution, certain species such as the Oshima cherry were selected for their known resistance to smoke. As a result, Hitachi City has many cherry trees, and major events are held each year coinciding with their blossoming, along the main streets in front of train stations, etc. And the dates on which these events are held are decided based on our previous observation data such as the dates of peak cherry blossom, etc., for which the Weather Information Bureau also conducts its own cherry blossom forecasting. Although our cherry blossom forecast is not used per se in deciding the event schedules since they must be made far in advance, if we predict that the schedule of an event might be off from the likely timing of cherry blossom in any given year, the organizer might hold an event a week earlier or later, for example, heeding our advice in recent years.

Do you have any advice to municipalities that do not have an observatory of their own?

While it is up to each municipality to decide whether or not it should allocate a budget for its own meteorological observation, access to weather data is crucial for disaster prevention and mitigation purposes. So we are seeing more and more municipalities obtaining data from privately-run weather service companies through paid subscription, purchasing relatively inexpensive observation equipment, and using solar power in their observation activities, etc., being more creative in their approach to conducting their own meteorological operations. Since municipalities are having to handle more tasks related to the weather for disaster mitigation, hyperthermia prevention, etc., they might do well to consider acquiring and implementing observation equipment at low cost, taking advantage of technological evolution. On Hitachi City’s part, we are also considering going the same economical route each time there is a need for us to add a new piece of equipment at our observatories.

Please tell us about the source of motivation behind your work at the Weather Information Bureau as well as your outlook on the future.

When I was in middle school, I read this novel entitled Aru-machi no takai entotsu (A Town and a Tall Chimney), which told a story of the struggle in overcoming the smoke pollution caused by the Hitachi Mines and led me to find out about the Weather Information Bureau. I was highly impressed by the role the institution had played and started aspiring to work here, and the rest is history.
It was right around that time when an employee of Hitachi City became the first certified weather forecaster in the municipal government. As it was reported in a newspaper that I came across, I sort of assumed that if I get the qualification, I can be hired by the Weather Information Bureau. So after taking and failing the examination several times, I eventually became a certified weather forecaster myself.
As I perform my job at the Weather Information Bureau, I get to directly interact with municipal residents over the phone and in person at off-site lectures, etc., where I often get feedback that the information I had provided was useful to them, and that motivates me. In addition, concerning the aspect of my job related to disaster prevention, every time there is a weather condition that could potentially cause a disaster but ends up passing us by without an issue, I feel a tremendous sense of relief from all the tension that had built up inside me.

Our day-to-day operation is rather mundane, however, as it is basically a repetition of observation and forecasting activities. With that said, observation is such crucial work in that if no observation is made for a time period, there will be no record of the weather from it, as we cannot travel back in time. So this realization also motivates me to handle my routine work with full attention and care, thinking that I am doing it for the future generation. Another significant factor that motivates me is that I am helping preventing and mitigating disasters that could impact the municipal residents, from behind the scenes, although they might not recognize it as my work. While the municipality is intent on continuously operating the Weather Information Bureau well into the future, to ensure it, we must deliver value to the municipal residents through our service, while promoting their understanding and use of the institution. In that respect, the knowledge that has been built and organized by our predecessors throughout the institution’s 70-year history has proven to be a valuable asset for our weather forecasting and disaster prevention activities. As municipal governments are known for frequent job reassignment for their employees, those of us working in disaster prevention get reshuffled every three to four years. So, for example, if there is an incoming typhoon resembling another typhoon that affected the area five years ago, it is possible that no one that was here and dealt with the previous typhoon back then is around. Since the Weather Information Bureau is an ongoing enterprise, I believe one of the institution’s crucial functions is its ability to provide previously observed data as needed for weather forecasting and countermeasure implementation. Also, as it is important for the institution to have sufficient human resource for it to maintain its operation over the long term, I am hoping some of our younger employees will become certified weather forecasters in due time.