Big Japanese Snows

The Tokyo Climate Center of the Japan Meteorological Agency just released a report discussing the heavy snowfall observed in Japan in recent weeks.  If you want the gory details, the report is available here.  The figures below are from the report.  

As detailed in the report, beginning in mid December, an anomalous jet-stream pattern led to frequent cold air outbreaks from interior Asia over the Sea of Japan, which was anomalously warm.  72-hour all-time or January snowfall records were broken at 19 stations, spanning nearly the entire length of Honshu.  

There are a couple of things that stand out for me in the image above.  First, there are some stations well inland from the Sea of Japan that set records.  These occurred during the mid-December event in which strong flow enabled deep inland penetration and orographic enhancement of sea-effect snowfall (see our previous post Gosetsu Chitai Dumpage for more information).  

Second, there are a few stations on or near the Pacific coasts of northern Honshu and Hokkaido Islands that also set records, including on the far east coast of Hokkaido.  These are not discussed explicitly in the report, and I wonder if they might reflect the influence of a passing mid-latitude cyclone rather than sea-effect spillover.  That might be most likely in far eastern Hokkaido.  Something to look into in a future life when time permits.

Maximum snow depths exceeded the maximum on record at one site and the maximum for January at four others.  If you squint, you can see a few sites in central Honshu and one in northern Honshu (probably Sukayu Onsen) that reached a snow depth of more than 300 cm (120 inches). 

Note also the stark contrast across Honshu.  This is actually not that unusual, but it's still remarkable.  Traveling by train, including Shinkasen (bullet train) from Tokyo to the Hokuriku district of central Honshu near the Sea of Japan (or vice versa) can be a mind boggling experience as you move through a remarkable climate gradient.  There's currently no snow in Tokyo, but more than 3 meters in the mountains near the Sea of Japan.  

In 2017, I left the Myoko Kogen where it was snowing heavily and the owner of the Myoko Mountain Lodge had to drive me inland to catch my train because the nearby stations were closed.  Here's how things looked the night before I left.

We had a difficult drive, but I caught my train.  The snowfall dropped off quickly inland.  I can't remember exactly where I took this photo on the Shinkasen to Tokyo, but the mountain in the distance is Mt. Fuji and you can see there is no snow on the ground.  

Tokyo is near sea level, but so are the cities on the Sea of Japan coast that currently have around a meter of snow.  Thus, even at the same elevation, there is a stark contrast.

The snowiest cities in the world are located on the Sea of Japan coast of Honshu and Hokkaido Islands.  Many average over 200 inches a year.  Huge "Gosetsu" winters (heavy snow winters) in the past have crippled those cities.  Here's a great video of Nagaoka in the 1963 Gosetsu Winter. 

All of this is a reminder that while Utah is in the grips of drought, Mother Nature can still bring it.