Also far colder than average.

Mount Kurodake in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido had its first snow of the season on Aug. 17, the earliest snowfall observed there since records began in 1974.

The snow near the peak of the 1,984-meter mountain fell more than a month earlier than last year’s, which fell on Sept. 28. The average date is Sept. 18.

The low in Sapporo on Aug. 17 was 13.4 Celsius, 5.7 degrees lower than average for this time of year, and about the same as the mid-September average.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180817/p2a/00m/0na/014000c

Thanks to Jack Hydrazine for this link