One of Asia’s busiest airports, the Haneda Airport was forced suspend all air traffic and railway services of Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended due to the heavy snowfall. Much of Tokyo and surrounding areas received up to 16 inches of snow. The storm has caused the deaths of at least three people and hundreds of others have suffered snow-related injuries.
There were over 13,000 blackouts across Tokyo as well as four other prefectures. In the midst of the deluge citizens of the capital headed out to cast their vote for the Tokyo gubernatorial election of 2014.
During the winter of 2013 parts of Northern Japan got 5.5m (18 feet) metres of snow. Across northern Japan, 13 places experienced record winter snowfall records in 2013.
While it is hard to know for sure if these increases in precipitation are attributable to climate change, we do know that Japan is getting hotter. More heat is increasing evaporation and this may be causing more rain and snow to fall on the island.
© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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