Kitadaitōjima

Kitadaitōjima, also spelled as Kita Daitō, Kita-Daitō-shima, and Kitadaitō, is the northernmost island in the Daitō Islands group, located in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa, Japan. It is administered as part of the village of Kitadaitō, Shimajiri District, Okinawa. The island is entirely cultivated for agriculture, although it lacks freshwater sources. The island has no beaches but has a fishing harbor, three ferry docks and an airport (Kitadaito Airport) (airport code "KTD") for local flights. Kitadaitōjima is a relatively isolated coralline island, located approximately north of Minamidaitōjima, the largest island of the archipelago, and from Naha, Okinawa. As with the other islands in the archipelago, Kitadaitōjima is an uplifted coral atoll with a steep coastal cliff of limestone (the former fringing coral reef of the island), and a depressed center (the former lagoon of the island). The island is roughly oval in shape, with a circumference of about , length of and an area of . The highest point is above sea level. The 660 (as of June 1, 2013) inhabitants live in a village in the center of the island. File:Kitadaitou.jpg|A village in the interior of the island. File:Kitadaitou kitakaigan.jpg|A natural area Kitadaitōjima has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification Af) with very warm summers and mild winters. The average annual temperature in Kitadaitōjima is . Precipitation is significant throughout the year; the wettest month is May and the driest month is February. The island is subject to frequent typhoons. The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Its record high is , reached on 7 September 2017, and its record low is , reached on 15 February 2015. It is uncertain when Minamidaitōjima was discovered. It is the most likely that their first sighting was by the Spanish navigator Bernardo de la Torre in 1543, in between 25 September and 2 October, during his abortive attempt to reach New Spain from the Philippines with the San Juan de Letran.