Mercurial

The NEPAC situation is a complete disaster out here lol. Maybe the warmth will mean a more active Pac jet at least.

same

Hit 27 this morning. (first freeze was back on July 6)

lol yeah same here, fires all over Ennis now. You're welcome

Crazy how this forest fire season hasn't been worse. We've been so dry here in the Hebgen Basin/Yellowstone area.

We got about a half inch to an inch of snow today. Snowed for most of the morning and afternoon. (elev 6,700')

Still have some residual snowpack on the ground in shaded/wooded areas here. That said, BRING ON SUMMER!!!

Spent the winter of 20-21 in Aomori and 21-22/22-23 in Otaru. Otaru is a bedroom community of Sapporo but gets even more snow, thanks to its coastal location. Never once checked models. It snowed almost continuously from mid Dec to March. I grew up in Baltimore, then gradually traded up my snow climo, to NYC, then Montana, then Aomori, and finally Otaru. Otaru was probably the pinnacle. Well, there are a few small towns between Sapporo and Asahikawa that get more, like Iwamizawa and Bibai. I once again live in a ski resort town in Montana, and the climate here is way, way worse. This is a mental illness... lol.

it's been a crap winter in sapporo proper. They've missed out on many of the snowbands that have hit Otaru, Iwamizawa etc. For that matter, the whole of Hokkaido just torched late last week, temps got into the mid 40s for two days which is quite unusual.

I live in Japan. Have about 110" so far, which is about normal for this part of Hokkaido. Honshu (the main island) has generally below normal snowpacks, as far as I can tell. When you hear western media going off about 'record snow in Japan', usually it's just record snow on a particular date. So for instance, 3 feet may be record snow for Jan 16, but def not an all time record. Also confusing matters is that multi-feet dumps are quite common in the parts of Japan that face the Sea of Japan. It's sort of like saying 6" is record snow at BWI or something.

Decided to hang in Hokkaido for the rest of winter. My job is in Tokyo, but since I currently have remote work privileges, I might as well keep bumming around northern Japan for the rest of winter. Anyway, here's the train to Otaru. Some photos from around town; I felt it was quite photogenic for a Japanese town (contemporary Japanese architecture is usually just... ugh).

It's going to keep shifting north until NYC sees snow. Which puts DC and Balt firmly in the jackpot area, I suppose.

thanks for checking, think I fixed it.

These were taken today. Just another day in the life

Even Reno gets feet of snow, wow.