Memories of Snow in Niigata

　
　This year also continues the trend of a mild winter, and even when it snows, the accumulation is around 20cm, with no prolonged cold spells causing it to melt quickly. Recently, there hasn’t been a year necessitating the removal of snow from roofs, and Niigata Prefecture feels like it has transformed into a snowy landscape more akin to the San’in region, while Hokkaido has taken on the heavy snowfall reminiscent of Niigata in the past.

Seasonal Discrepancy

　As a child, listening to the nursery rhyme that said, ‘Let’s fly kites and play with feathers on New Year’s,’ I often wondered why we would do such a thing in the snow during New Year’s. (In Niigata, kite flying usually took place around early April when the snow had melted.)
　 Similarly, the lyrics ‘First snowfall, the imprint of geta in the shape of the chinese character ‘二” made me wonder why wear geta in the snow? It should be boots. (Later, when I went to a university in the Kanto region, I was thrilled to live through winter without relying solely on boots.
　There wasn’t a custom of visiting graves during the spring equinox. During this time, the graves were still covered with snow and inaccessible. (Instead, the Obon festival was grand and lively as a substitute.)
The seasonal differences between Tokyo and Niigata, with a three-month gap, were incomprehensible to my childlike understanding.

In 1963, Niigata experienced heavy snowfall　

　The winter around 1963 in the Shōwa era brought continuous heavy snowfall in Niigata. Snow began to accumulate before Christmas, and for three months until the end of March, everything was blanketed in white, and there was no sight of bare ground. (I was a second-year junior high school student at the time.)
　I often saw TV reports and newspaper articles about trains stranded and emergency food distribution. It seems that Nagaoka City recorded the deepest snow accumulation at 318cm, which is still considered the highest in recorded history.
　Unlike today with snow-melting pipes and the mobility of snow removal vehicles, especially in rural areas, buses did not run for the three winter months. I remember occasionally seeing someone using a horse-drawn sled. In any case, getting around meant relying on one’s own feet.
As the long winter approached its end, the first glimpse of the ground emerged beneath the large trees, where the snow accumulation was less. Seeing the brown earth and the green moss amidst the otherwise white world was a tangible sign that spring had arrived.

The snow is a reserve of water resources

　The stripe-shaped clouds born from the cold air of Siberia meeting the warm Japan Sea collide with the Echigo mountain range, causing snowfall. The melted snowwater nourishes the Niigata Plain (Shinano River) and the Kanto Plain (Tone River) until summer. It is a grand water cycle, with the water eventually returning to the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
　When there is little snow accumulation in the mountains, there is concern about water shortage in the summer. Also, intense heat like last year and 40 days without rain can have a significant impact on crops.
　We can only hope that the winter continental high-pressure system weakens, resulting in less snow, and that the summer Pacific high-pressure system does not consistently intensify, leading to the downsloping phenomenon called the foehn effect from the Echigo mountain range, causing intense heat. We pray for a lack of regularity in this pattern.
　

The streak-shaped clouds of the Japan Sea

　When there is a west high, east low pressure pattern, you often hear about streak-shaped clouds in weather forecasts. About 40 years ago, on a return flight to Europe, as we entered the Japan Sea from the continental side, wispy clouds from the updrafts would gently form. 　　　　Gradually approaching Niigata, those clouds thickened until the Japan Sea below became obscured. Witnessing the birth of streak-shaped clouds in such a situation was truly awe-inspiring.
It’s a digression, but about 40 years ago was during the era of the Cold War structure. At that time, the only airlines allowed to fly over Siberian airspace were Aeroflot and British Caledonian Airlines (until 1988). When flying over Siberia, passengers were required to keep their window shades closed. Other airlines had to take a route via Anchorage, which took 18 hours instead of the 12-hour direct route.