Mounting Doom
Don’t panic, but Japan’s Mount Fuji has officially gone all of October without any snow, CNN reports, making it the longest period — and counting! — that the mountain has been snowless since records began 130 years ago.
Typically, Mount Fuji’s peak should’ve already been donning its iconic snowcap for weeks by now. On average, the mountain, which is the tallest in Japan, begins to form snowcaps on October 2, and last year, it started on October 5. But as of November 1 — or November 2 in Japan, which is ahead of us — it’s still bare.
Prior to this season, the latest recorded snowfall occurred on October 29, in 1955 and 2016.
“Because of the fact that high temperatures in Japan have been continuing since the summer and as it has been raining, there has been no snowfall,” Japan Meteorological Agency officer Shinichi Yanagi told CNN.
Better Late
A chilly silver lining: the meteorological agency finally has snow on the forecast, the Agence France-Presse reports — but the date will still be alarmingly late.
“Rain is likely to fall temporarily near Mount Fuji on November 6,” the Japan Weather Association said Thursday, per the AFP.
“Cold air will move in and change from rain to snow near the summit,” it added. “The weather will gradually clear up, and the first snow on the mountain may be observed on the morning of the 7th.”
If the forecast holds up, that means the record will be surpassed by a full nine days. Hard to chalk that one up to a rounding error.
Obvious Culprit
And there’s no mystery to it, folks. The cause for the delayed snows — and a desacralizing of a winter season landmark — is almost certainly climate change.
This summer was Japan’s hottest in history for the second year in a row, with average temperatures over three degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average between 1991 and 2020.
And as CNN notes, this trend persisted into the fall, with Japan experiencing its second-hottest September on record — behind only last year’s.
October wasn’t spared hot climes either, as evidenced by the snowless Mt. Fuji, with an analysis from the research group Climate Central determining that human-driven climate change made the season’s unusual heat three times as likely.
So count your blessings: the snows may be late this year, but they could be gone another.
More on climate change: Scientists Propose Shooting $200 Trillion Worth of Pulverized Diamonds Into Atmosphere
