Overview
- The Kofu meteorological office confirmed a light dusting visible from Kofu after summit temperatures fell below freezing, using the long-standing visibility criterion in place for over a century.
- The first visible snow arrived 21 days after the historical average yet earlier than 2024’s record-late 7 November, based on records dating to 1894.
- Japan’s summer 2025 posted exceptional heat with a nationwide average 2.36C above normal, a 41.8C peak in Isesaki, at least 30 instances above 40C, and about 100,000 heatstroke hospitalisations.
- A recent study reported that Japan’s 2025 heat would virtually never have occurred without global warming and concluded that the pace of temperature rise has accelerated.
- Climatologist Yoshihiro Iijima pointed to unusually warm waters in the Pacific and Sea of Japan, along with influences such as the Kuroshio current, as key factors elevating land temperatures.