Bizarre Climates | Japan's Snow Coast Explained

On Japan's west coast, facing the Sea of Japan, you will find a climate unlike any other—hot, humid summers followed by some of the snowiest winters at this latitude. The mountains just behind the coastline (Yukiguni, or snow country) have some of the highest snowfall totals on earth. What creates this extraordinary snowfall? And how does it affect people, their history, and their environment? How did the people in cities like Kanazawa, Toyama, Niigata, and Akita adapt to this climate, and how has it shaped their culture? Image Sources: NASA Earth Observatory Google Earth JMA/Himawari-8, RAMMB/CIRA, TW Wikipedia Creative Commons: (Pietro Zanarini, Adam Jones, Asturio Canatabrio, Σ64, Hirotomo T, Esquilo, Urya, Imai, Takashi Hososhima, Josh Furr, Holger Behr, Don Ramey Logan, Alpsdake) Flickr Creative Commons: (JP Newell https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpnewell/ , Pelican https://www.flickr.com/photos/pelican/ Vintage Japan-esque https://www.flickr.com/photos/vintage...) Japan Population Census of 2005 Information Sources: Perspectives on Sea- and Lake-Effect Precipitation From Japan’s “Gosetsu Chitai”. W. James Steenburgh, Sento Nakai. Study of snow climate in the Japanese Alps: Comparison to snow climate in North America. Cold Regions Science and Technology. November 2009. Shinji Ikeda, Ryuzo Wakabayashi, Kauro Izumi, Katsuhisa Kawashima. Japanese Ornamental Koi Carp: Origin, Variation and Genetics. Biology and Ecology of Carp (pp.27-53). Servaas De Kock, Boris Gomelsky. Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Shogakukan. 2012. Vaporis, Constantine (2012). "Linking the Realm: The Gokaidô Highway Network in Early Modern Japan (1603–1868)". Highways, Byways, and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World: 90–105. https://www.britannica.com/place/Shin... Wild Salmon Center: https://wildsalmoncenter.org/salmon-s... http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/amago/trout/iw... http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/amago/trout/wi... Garshelis, D. & Steinmetz, R. (2020). "Ursus thibetanus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020 Chinese Central Weather Bureau Chinese Meteorological Administration (precipitation days and sunshine 1971–2000) https://vivskoreanadventures.wordpres... https://foodinjapan.org/chubu/toyama/...