Snow Finally Returns to Japan's Mount Fuji, Slopes Have Been ‘Naked’ for a Record Long Time

The first snow has fallen on Japan's highest mountain, Mount Fuji, after a climate ‘anti-record’, The Japan Times reports.

For the first time in 130 years of observations, there was no snow on Japan's highest mountain in late October, but on 6 November, the slopes turned white.

Yutaka Katsuta, a forecaster at the local meteorological office, explained that this was the latest date for snow to appear on Mount Fuji since 1894.

The European Space Agency has already shown a picture of the snow-covered summit of the volcano.

‘Mount Fuji has seen its first snowfall after one of the longest periods of snowlessness. The Copernicus photo was taken on 7 November, just a day after the snow was spotted by the Japan Meteorological Agency's Shizuoka branch,’ ESA Earth Observation writes.

Usually, the volcano's snow cover begins to form on 2 October, and last year snow appeared there on 5 October. But this year, due to the warm weather, there was no snowfall on Mount Fuji even at the end of October.

‘The temperatures were high this summer, and these high temperatures lasted into September, keeping the cold air at bay,’ Yutaka Katsuta told The Japan Times.

This summer, extreme heat waves caused by climate change hit many parts of the world, including Ukraine. European scientists have said that 2024 is likely to be the hottest year on record.

As The Gaze previously reported, snow usually falls on the top of Japan's highest mountain before the beginning of October, but this year's unusually warm weather has led to no snowfall. This is the first time in 130 years of record keeping,