SDF deployed as record snowfall blankets parts of Japan

@kniknaknakkear: Only 4,495,500,000 years out. Close but no cigar!

Okay - sometimes I play fast and loose with the facts.

Gary: The climate has been through drastic changes over the eons, though not so drastic in the time of humans ascendancy.

Don’t be afraid of climate change - celebrate it! Adapt to it just as humans have always adapted to the changes in climate. The Little Ice Age ended just a few hundred years ago. The planet has been warming ever since. Let’s not cause chaos in the lives of all of those hundreds of millions who have risen out of abject poverty due to the energy provided by fossil fuels.

CO2 constitutes a fraction of 1% of all atmospheric gases. CO2 isn’t even the greatest amount of all of the greenhouse gases. More CO2 is emitted from natural sources than from fossil fuels. Chill people - the world isn’t going to end in 2032 regardless of what AOC says.

@wolfpack The planet is 4.5 million years old.

1 the earth is over 4.5 BILLION years old 2 multiple sources of accurate data (ice core, ocean core...) suggest climate has not been in the current state (ie hight CO2 concentration levels etc) since the pliocene - 4 million years ago.

Back to the immediate topic for a second, some drivers have been there over 40 hours now, with no prospects of getting freed, so the authorities have today hired buses, and using the now-ploughed opposite lane they have begun collecting around 1,000 drivers and ferrying them to nearby hotels.

No snow in Minato, but hard frosts every morning, and the nearby pond was frozen over today. Normally it doesn’t freeze until late January.

Kohakuebisu, the last time heavy snow and drifts caused mass traffic jams there, it was on the local main road, not on the highway. At least some drivers felt able to knock on doors of houses and ask for help.

Trees coming down and hitting power lines etc can't be helped.

With the highway, its probably a combination of a bad judgment call keeping the hardest hit part of it open and driver error/insufficient preparation by individual vehicles. It is possible to close the highway between a couple of intersections only if the problem is very localized. In very heavy snow, the expressway will be little or no faster than the regular roads. The expressway is many many times more dangerous once people start getting stuck,

I wish the cars trapped on highway and residents nearby were not serous injured. food supplies and warm cloths and so on

this case was I think because of La Niña

During this winter season, there is obviously a trend of the phenomenon which often brings cold air from Siberia

Also in December water surface in Sea of Japan has been still warm which could lead heavy snow to the area

The name that we give to things determine our attitudes towards them.

Freedom fighter = terrorist. You see what I mean, don't you.

The original term for the effect of loading the atmosphere with CO2 was the Greenhouse Effect.

It pretty simply describes the effect, but does not have a ring of urgency to it

So, we moved on to Global Warming. Again, if you live in a cold place it sounds quite attractive.

It was noticed that the effects of CO2 are not limited to "warming" and Climate Change was the given phrase.

Still, "change"?

The climate has been through drastic changes over the eons, though not so drastic in the time of humans ascendancy.

So now the term in use by those (like me) who see the need to educate people on the fact that pouring CO2 into the atmosphere will create climate chaos, is Climate Chaos.

And that Climate Chaos is what we are starting to experience all around the world.

Yes , we have had droughts, floods, typhoons, tornadoes, forest fires, hail, and heavy snowfalls before.

We will see more or less of them. Less rainfall where it is needed. Monsoons out of their usual time frame and so on. In other words, Climate Chaos.

Winter is so crap.

Imagine being a climate change denier in 2020.

Why I live in Okinawa (or Florida).

Where is the snow!! I want some snow. I live in view of Mount Fuji, and there is not much snow up there at the moment.

There are lot of snow in the western side of Japan every year. You must be in the eastern side of Japan. Not much snow there.

Dat global warming

@ifd66: Record snowfall is another example of the extreme weather expected with climate change.

Record snowfall isn’t saying much. How old is the weather data - 100, 120 years old? The planet is 4.5 million years old.

@Tora: Higher summer temps made the current ocean temps around Japan one to two degrees higher, leading to more humidity that changes into snow when it hits an arctic cold front. Still unclear on the process?

Every extreme in weather will inevitably lead to more extremes year after year without end. Sounds terrifying.

Where is the snow!! I want some snow. I live in view of Mount Fuji, and there is not much snow up there at the moment.

@Wolfpack Climate change - amazing!

Record snowfall is another example of the extreme weather expected with climate change. More heat energy in the oceans and atmosphere strengthen storm patterns making them wetter in the summer, and giving heavier snowfall in the winter.

Common sense.

To help the doubtful Wolfpacks and WilliBs on here, it works like this:

Higher summer temps made the current ocean temps around Japan one to two degrees higher, leading to more humidity that changes into snow when it hits an arctic cold front. Still unclear on the process?

Source: NHK evening news

Amazing work by the SDF. It is comforting for Japanese to know the SDF is ready within seconds to respond to any disaster - natural or man-made, pandemic, blizzard, flood, typhoon, earthquake or tsunami.

The JSDF pulling sleds, bringing food and gas, to at one time, 1000 cars stranded on the highway, was shown on the news this AM. One guy interviewed said he was in his car for over 20 hours, and extremely grateful that they came and helped shovel snow out from behind his car, as it was plugging his exhaust pipe.

Kudos to them for helping out!

Where is that LDP member who was a former SDF officer who was complaining that the Self Defense Force is not a Benriya. This is what they are for in my opinion. To help out the citizens of the country whenever there is a crisis. No matter what type.

Climate change - amazing!