Mount Fuji has snow again

The Japan Meteorological Agency – which compares conditions at the same location every year – has not announced a new record for the latest time it takes for Mount Fuji’s peak to become covered in snow due to cloudy conditions near the monitoring station. However, photos taken from different locations around the mountain on the morning of November 6 with clearer skies showed that the mountain top was covered with snow.

“These are photos of Mount Fuji seen from the city hall this morning. We can see a thin layer of snow near the top of the mountain,” posted the official account of Fuji city in the Shizuoka region, central Japan. on social network X today. Many other people in the area also posted photos of snow on Japan’s highest mountain.

Snow on Mount Fuji begins to appear on average on October 2. Last year, meteorologists in Kofu city detected the first snowfall on October 5. 2024 is the latest year for snowfall since 1894, when scientists began collecting data, surpassing the old record of October 26, which occurred twice in 1955 and 2016.

According to an expert at the Kofu office of the Japan Meteorological Agency, the sky is still cloudy so it is not possible to declare a new record, but hopefully the sky will gradually become clearer. He added that today’s temperature is low so the snow layer on the mountain will likely stay the same temporarily.

Global warming is one of many factors causing slow snow cover. “October temperatures on the summit of Mount Fuji are warmer than average,” said experts at the Kofu office.

This summer and 2023 are the hottest summers ever recorded in Japan. Extreme heat waves due to climate change are also raging in many parts of the world.

Mount Fuji is 3,776 m high above sea level. During the July-September climbing season, more than 220,000 visitors climb the steep rocky slopes, many of whom climb overnight to experience the sunrise. This symmetrical volcano has been captured in countless works of art, including Hokusai’s “Great Waves.” The last time Mount Fuji erupted was about 300 years ago.