By HIDEMASA YOSHIZAWA/ Staff Writer
February 14, 2022 at 14:20 JST
The Japan Meteorological Agency (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Residents in Tokyo and other parts of the southern Kanto region were spared the heavy snow that was forecast to fall through the morning of Feb. 14, thanks to warmer-than-expected temperatures.
Urban areas in the southern Kanto region, including Tokyo's 23 wards, didn’t experience the snow accumulation that the Japan Meteorological Agency warned the day before could disrupt the morning commute.
The low-pressure system that developed in the south of the Japanese archipelago and the cold temperature brought snow mainly to mountainous areas in the Kanto-Koshin region.
According to the JMA, through 8 a.m. on Feb. 14, 29 centimeters of snow was recorded in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, 28 cm in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, 17 cm in the Okunikko district in Tochigi Prefecture’s Nikko, 4 cm in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, and 2 cm in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture.
The JMA announced on the afternoon of Feb. 13 that the plain areas of the southern Kanto region could receive up to 8 cm of snow for the 24 hours until 6 p.m. on Feb. 14.
However, by 8 a.m. on Feb. 14, no accumulation of snow was observed in urban areas in the southern Kanto region, including central Tokyo, Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture and Chiba city in Chiba Prefecture.
The temperature in central Tokyo at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13 was much higher than that forecast, at 4.8 degrees, although the mercury dipped to 0.9 degrees by midnight that day. Those warmer temperatures in most areas brought rain instead of snow.
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