Home > Focus on Japan 2014 > Insane Amounts of Snow

Insane Amounts of Snow

February 15th, 2014

Last week, Tokyo was hit by what was described as the biggest snowstorm to hit the metropolis in 45 years. It was crazy—snow piled higher than I have ever seen it in Tokyo (natch), rivaling even what I remember in Toyama, which had tons of snow.

Tonight, there’s an even bigger one. School was canceled, possibly saving me hours of waiting for trains on the way home.

I couldn’t take photos staged well enough to do it justice, but here are a few small examples:

Snow04

What you see above is the street. Hard to see from this how deep the snow is, but it’s deep. Here is the view from the porch; keep in mind that the bicycle seen here is not resting at street level, but on ground about 10 inches higher than that—and the snow on the street has almost caught up with it.

Snow03-1

Snow01-1

In the image below, see all that snow on my scooter? I cleared that off earlier in the evening. The street in front of it we spent a half hour clearing maybe six hours earlier, but when I stepped into it, my leg went down enough so the snow was practically up to my knee.

Snow02-1

Snow05

Tomorrow, the temp is predicted to rise to 10° C (50° F) and there’s going to be heavy rain. I have no idea if that will be enough to help clear the snow, or if it will just turn everything to ice.

We’ll have to see.

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  1. Troy
    February 15th, 2014 at 11:18 | #1

    73 degrees here, at 6PM.

    “Pineapple Express” w/o the rain.

    http://www.weather.com/maps/geography/westus/westcoastussatellite_large_animated.html

    Have had to wear a jacket for like two weeks this winter, in December when we got a dry arctic airmass come down and again last week when a storm finally blew through.

    Don’t miss Tokyo winters, that’s for sure.

    Don’t miss Tokyo summers, for that matter.

    Least you have the weekend to dig out. . .

  2. kensensei
    February 16th, 2014 at 09:30 | #2

    Wow. I have never seen snow so deep in Japan. This is something truly unusual and astonishing. Wow.
    –kensensei

  3. kensensei
    February 17th, 2014 at 04:53 | #3

    Hope you got lots of hot tea and snacks to get your thru. Could be a long winter hehe. (Don’t sleep under your kotatsu!)
    –kensensei

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