Snowcap Sighting; Snow Spotted Covering Top of Mt. Fuji for 1st Time This Season

Snow is spotted covering the top of Mt. Fuji, as observed from a Yomiuri Shimbun helicopter Thursday morning. The Kofu Local Meteorological Office declared the same day the season’s first snowfall on Japan’s highest mountain, later visually confirming the snow at around 6 a.m. The snowfall was 21 days later than average. It also was 15 days earlier than last year, when the season’s first snowfall was confirmed in November for the first time since observations began in 1894.