The rainy season began in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, earlier than in northern Kyushu this year -- an unusual phenomenon that hadn't happened in 13 years, according to the Meteorological Agency.

This is only the fifth time that such a phenomenon has been observed since the agency began to take statistics in 1951, agency officials said.

The rainy season typically starts in southern areas earlier as the high-pressure system in the Pacific Ocean grows stronger in the south and gradually pushes the seasonal rain front toward the north.

However, high-pressure systems unusually appeared in the Sea of Okhotsk east of Hokkaido and the Pacific Ocean off the Sanriku district of the Tohoku region in northeastern Honshu between late May and the beginning of this month.

These caused cold and wet air to blow into the Kanto-Koshin region and brought seasonal rains earlier than normal. The agency said the rainy season got under way in the Kanto-Koshin region on June 2, six days earlier than normal.

On the other hand, the rainy season has not yet begun in northern Kyushu and western Honshu as a seasonal rain front is moving northward slower than usual.

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