Bare slopes
Japan’s Mount Fuji remained snowless on Tuesday, marking the latest date that its slopes have been bare since records began 130 years ago, the country’s weather agency said. The volcano’s snowcap begins forming on 2 October on average, and last year snow was first detected there on 5 October.
But because of warm weather, this year no snowfall had yet been observed on Japan’s highest mountain, said Yutaka Katsuta, a forecaster at Kofu Local Meteorological Office.
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Japan’s summer this year was the joint hottest on record – equalling the level seen in 2023 – as extreme heatwaves fuelled by climate change engulfed many parts of the globe.
If it’s any comfort, Mount Rainier is never bare naked like that. It rejoices in 35 square miles of permanent ice and snow.
For now.
Yes, it was by far the most unpleasant summer I have ever known here (and Japanese summers are never pleasant, because of high humidity coupled with heat – I used to go mad every summer when I first arrived in Japan fifty years ago). Because of the high humidity, the temperature barely drops at night, and this year virtually every night was a 熱帯夜 (nettaiya – a sultry night), so that it was impossible to go for a walk in the cool of the evening, since there was no cool, and impossible to sleep (or to attempt to work during the day) without an air-conditioner on – which of course helps to make matters worse, but without them one would be unable to do anything and would be suffering from heat-stroke. Also, there was a huge amount of rain throughout this summer, which helped to keep the humidity much higher and more constant than – I was going to say ’the norm’, but there is now no norm. It was absolutely enervating. And the heat persisted well into October.
We haven’t had any rain in northern Virginia for about a month. Meanwhile, in parts of Valencia they got a year’s worth of rain in eight hours. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/30/we-were-trapped-like-rats-spains-floods-bring-devastation-and-despair
Totally unrelated, of course, and nothing to do with climate change. https://apnews.com/article/spain-valencia-flooding-rain-climate-change-c77c6b49272420eea1d6324dd3016823