SHIZUOKA –
Mount Fuji has received its first snowcap of the season, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced on October 30, after temperatures at the summit plunged to minus 9.4 degrees Celsius, marking the arrival of winter conditions on Japan’s highest mountain.
The agency said its analysis indicated that at least 1 centimeter of snow had accumulated near the 3,776-meter summit as of 8 a.m., covering the mountain’s upper slopes in a layer of white.
This year’s confirmation also marks a significant change in how Mount Fuji’s first snowcap is officially recorded, ending a tradition of visual observations that began more than 130 years ago.
Since records began in 1894, the Kofu Local Meteorological Office in Yamanashi Prefecture has determined the mountain’s first snowcap through direct visual observation, with staff checking whether snow could be seen covering the summit.
Beginning this season, however, the Japan Meteorological Agency has replaced the traditional method with an automated system that analyzes meteorological data to determine whether snow has accumulated near the summit.
The new system uses observations from the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System, known as AMeDAS, together with weather radar information to estimate snow accumulation and automatically determine when the season’s first snowcap has formed.
The change represents a departure from more than a century of human observation, allowing the agency to confirm Mount Fuji’s first snowcap through data analysis rather than relying on visibility from the Kofu observatory.
Source: TBS
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