The coldest day on record

Today, January 25th, marks the anniversary of the coldest day on record in Japan. But the distinction is in "on record", because there was an even colder day observed. However, as the area was outside the area of the Japan Meteorological Agency's official observation network, it doesn't get counted!

First, the one on record. On January 25th 1902 Ashikawa in Hokkaido reached an extreme of -41 degrees. That's MINUS 41 degrees Celsius. Hard to fathom. The other one, that is not an official record is also in Hokkaido. Horokanai’s Moshiri district, in the Uryu District of Northern Hoddaido, recorded an even lower –41.2°C in 1978.

We rarely get very cold weather where I live in Saitama Prefecture. The coldest temperature on record for the prefecture is –9.8°C. We also rarely get snow in Saitama Prefecture. But in February 2014 we had a rare heavy snow fall and Saitama set a new record of snowfall, with 98 centimeters in Chichibu and about 62 centimeters in my area. The photo in this post is from then.