Japan Braces for a Deadly Cold Wave: Tokyo Faces Unprecedented Chill in March
Emergency Warning Report: 7 meters of snow / Fear of whiteout / Even in Shikoku and Kyushu
“I seriously felt the danger to my life.”
“I am in my 50s, but I have never seen such terrifying snow. My father, in his 80s, also said, ‘This is the heaviest snow I’ve ever experienced.’ I seriously felt the danger to my life.”
This was said by Seichi Kobayashi, the owner of “Kobayashi Orchard” in Yahataham, Ehime Prefecture.
A cold wave is sweeping across the Japanese archipelago. The damage is not limited to northern Japan. Even over Shikoku, an area that typically sees little snow, cold air with temperatures as low as -12°C flowed in during early February.
“Due to the heavy snow, what usually takes 15 minutes to drive home took me two hours by car. Some employees were stranded and had to spend the night in their cars, shivering from the cold. Even with snow tires, it was useless on the slopes due to slipping. At my house, snow piled up in front of the entrance, and I was temporarily unable to go outside. Snow accumulated on the roof and fell with a loud ‘boom!’ in the middle of the night, waking me up,” said Seichi Kobayashi.
Why is the cold wave covering all of Japan? Professor Yoshihiro Tachibana from the Faculty of Bioresources at Mie University, an expert on climate change, explains:
“Due to global warming, the jet stream is more likely to meander. Near Japan, the jet stream dips southward, completely covering the islands. A powerful cold wave from the Arctic is flowing into this region. The sky over Japan is the coldest place in the world. Last summer, the temperature was the highest ever recorded, causing sea temperatures to rise unusually. The greater the temperature difference between the air and sea, the more water vapor increases, resulting in heavy snow.”
There is another characteristic of this cold wave: the formation of a linear snowfall band. Meteorologist Koji Murayama explains:
“The severe cold winds from Siberia split at Mount Baekdu (2,744 meters), the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula, and then rejoin over the Sea of Japan, intensifying the activity. The fierce linear snowfall band formed here passes through the Kanmon Strait, bringing heavy snow to Shikoku and Kyushu.”
