Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The Japan Meteorological Agency thinks global warming will lead to heavier snowfall in Northern Japan.

According to writer Susumu Yoshida of the Asahi Shimbun, a prominent Japanese national newspaper;

Global warming will bring more heavy snow in northern Japan Logic would tell us that continuing global warming will lead to less snowfall, but the opposite will be true in some areas of northern Japan, according to a meteorological simulation. By the end of this century, while the country as a whole will receive a smaller amount of snow, Hokkaido and inland areas of the Hokuriku region will experience more frequent heavy snowfalls, the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency announced Sept. 23. The reasoning behind the prediction is that larger amounts of water vapor in the atmosphere caused by higher temperatures will make it easier for belts of snow clouds to develop above the Sea of Japan when the air pressure pattern is typical of the winter. According to the results of the institution’s precise simulation, the Japanese archipelago will have lighter snowfall during the winter, if the mean annual temperature increases three degrees from the current level between 2080 and 2100. …

Read more: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201610100004.html

Tracking original source material is a bit tricky because I don’t read or write Japanese, but the following appears to be part of an official Japanese Meteorological Report – though I am not sure if it is the source material referenced by Yoshida.

… Snowfall in winter (Fig 6.1, Fig 6.2) Snowfall in winter (December – March) is projected to decrease under both scenarios A1B and B1, in most areas except Hokkaido. The projected decrease for scenario A1B is greater than that for B1. The projected increase in snowfall at high altitudes in Hokkaido for scenario A1B is greater than for the B1. Heavy snowfall in winter (Fig 7.1, Table 7.1, Table 7.2) The frequency of heavy snowfall is projected to increase at high altitudes in Hokkaido. The projected rate of increase for scenario A1B is greater than that for B1. In most areas except Hokkaido, the frequency of heavy snowfall is projected to decrease for scenario A1B more than that for B1. …

Read more: http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/gwp7/html_e/summary.html

All I can say is thank goodness we are not experiencing global cooling, otherwise we might have no snowfall at all.

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