"Japan continues to suffer an exceptionally cold and snowy winter of 2021-2022.
Unprecedented snowfall, particularly in northern parts, started back in December.
The accumulations built and built, and soon benchmarks extending as far back as 1893 were falling:
Snow records have been broken in Japan. Hikone has 73cm of snow on the ground, making it the heaviest for December since records began in 1893.
“It’s been an exceptionally snowy winter for Japan,” wrote Sayaka Mori in a recent tweet.
The accumulations at Sukayu, for example, reached 4.32m (14.2 feet) on Monday — the largest January totals since records began in 1980.
In the meantime, Chitose had -25.4℃,
tying the all-time record which began in 2003"
pic.twitter.com/nusvrESqui
— Sayaka Mori
(@sayakasofiamori)
January 31, 2022
Chitose suffered -25.4C (-13.7F) this week
— tying the locale’s all-time record.
And back on Jan 20, it was reported that 74% of the Japan’s weather stations were below the freezing mark, with a bone-chilling -27.7C (-17.9F) noted at Sumarinai, Hokkaido
As reported by aljazeera.com, India’s capital New Delhi is shivering through an unusually harsh bout of winter cold that has been blamed for killing scores of homeless people and leaving other hard-up residents struggling to keep warm.
Last week, New Delhi suffered its coldest January day in a decade, but it’s the extent and prolonged nature of the cold that has this winter standing out, that and also how widespread the chill has been.
Bhopal, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradeshas and on the Tropic of Cancer, recently shivered through its coldest night in 55 years, with a low of 4C (39.2F).
While in the north, record cold and snow have been impacting regions such as Jammu and Kashmir.
Delhi itself has been no stranger to record-breaking cold over the past few years as low solar activity begins impacting temperatures (after a decade-or-so lag, likely due to ocean inertia).
Among the city’s fallen benchmarks:
It suffered its coldest December day
in more than a century back in 2019;
it also registered its chilliest months
of October and November in 54 and 71 years,
respectively, back in 2020;
Delhi’s coldest May day in 70 years
was logged in 2021; and the following
month brought its lowest June temperature ever.
Delhi’s maximum daily winter temperatures, according to India’s weather bureau, have been holding between 2C and 6C below normal for the majority of January.
Sunil Kumar Aledia of the Centre for Holistic Development, who works with New Delhi’s homeless population, said the city saw almost 200 deaths from exposure to the unusually harsh bouts of cold in January, 2022."