Japan's weather agency has released data showing this summer tied with last year as the country's hottest on record.

The Meteorological Agency says the average temperature in Japan from June to August was 1.76 degrees Celsius higher than usual. The rise was the same as seen last summer, a record since comparable data became available in 1898.

Officials say dangerous heat continued in July. Daytime highs of 40 degrees or over were observed at six locations in one day.

They also say it was intensely hot in August as high-pressure systems covered the archipelago, especially western Japan, bringing sunny skies with intense heat.

The agency held an experts' panel meeting on Monday to discuss the record high temperatures. The panel said the hot summer from July can be called abnormal weather.

They said Japan tended to be covered by a tall and warm high-pressure system in July and August as the westerlies meandered northward. They also said the Pacific high expanded toward western Japan particularly in July.

University of Tokyo Professor Nakamura Hisashi, chief of the panel, said long-term global warming is raising temperatures and hot weather may continue.