By YUSUI MUNEKATA/ Staff Writer
November 7, 2024 at 11:50 JST
KOFU—Mount Fuji donned its first snowcap this season on Nov. 7, the latest in 130 years.
The Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which makes the annual official announcement, said officials visually confirmed that the nation’s tallest peak was dusted with snow at 6:15 a.m.
The temperature fell to minus 8.4 degrees at the summit of the 3,776-meter mountain around 7 a.m.
Meteorological officials said rainfall did not result in snow in October, when average temperatures at the mountaintop were the highest on record.
They said global warming is believed to be a factor.
Snow was observed from some locations on Nov. 6, but clouds blocked the view from the meteorological office located in the capital of Yamanashi Prefecture.
The previous record for the most-delayed snowfall was Oct. 26, set in 1955 and 2016. Record-keeping began in 1894.
On average, the mountain’s first snowcap falls on Oct. 2. Last year, snow was first observed on Oct. 5.
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
The upper part of Mount Fuji is dusted with snow on Nov. 7. (Koichiro Yoshida)
