Mt. Takadake is in the Aso volcano zone of Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern most island of Kyushu, one of Japan’s four main islands, but not ALL of Japan’s island.

The mountain was found snowcapped Tuesday. The Kyushu region had its first snow of the season says the Kumamoto local meteorological observatory. The snow on the 1,592 meter (5,250′) peak came one day later than average but 16 days earlier than last year.

Light rain in the Aso area turned to snow early Tuesday morning because of a stream of cold air. And this happened on Japan’s southernmost main island, you know, where it’s warmer and such. The temperature in the area stood at 3.2 C at 4:04 a.m. However, it started falling and marked minus 0.5 C at 12:32 p.m. just cold enough to snow.

Global cooling? Of course, we can’t say so from one isolated incident such as this. But, to be sure, we only hear about when it’s warmer, not when it’s cooler than usual. How about a balanced hearing, eh?

Image courtesy of morygonzalez

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe free for our updates via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and please do come back!