‘Juhyo’ ice formations — previously found in a wide area stretching from Hokkaido in the north to Ishikawa Prefecture in the south — are steadily disappearing due to climate change
‘Juhyo’ ice formations — previously found in a wide area stretching from Hokkaido in the north to Ishikawa Prefecture in the south — are steadily disappearing due to climate change
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Excerpt from the linked content^1 by Tatsuro Sakata:
>“Juhyo” ice monsters once inhabited a wide area of the Japanese archipelago but are steadily disappearing due to climate change.
>Fumitaka Yanagisawa, a professor emeritus at Yamagata University’s Research Institute for Ice Monsters and Volcanoes of Zao, warns that ice monsters will all but vanish from Japan by the end of the century unless climate change slows.
>Juhyo were previously found in a wide area stretching from Hokkaido in the north to Ishikawa Prefecture in the south, but their geographical distribution has been shrinking, both from the northern and southern ends, according to Yanagisawa.
>The phenomenon, rarely observed outside the country, is a winter symbol of the Zao mountain range straddling the borders of Yamagata and Miyagi prefectures.
>
>The winter spectacles appear on mountains in the northeastern Tohoku region when evergreen conifer trees are covered with snow and ice, creating shapes resembling giant beasts.
>“Due to global warming, juhyo now form in areas with higher altitudes than in the past,” Yanagisawa said. “But there are no longer any mountains or conifer trees in Hokkaido at altitudes that meet the required weather conditions.”
>According to Yanagisawa, juhyo require multiple specific weather conditions to form: low temperatures between minus 10 and 15 degrees, snow accumulation of two to three meters and strong northwest or west winds with a speed of 36 to 54 kph, among others.
>The altitudes where juhyo can form are lower the farther north the location because conifer trees will get completely buried if it snows too much.
>The average temperature in Hokkaido has risen by about 1.6 degrees over the 100 years through 2020, according to the Sapporo District Meteorological Observatory.
^1 Tatsuro Sakata for the Asahi Shimbun, 12 Mar. 2023, https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14849508
Hokkaido is definitely warming up. My father-in-law grew up in Kitami City in Hokkaido. He said in mid winter it was always around -40 deg C. Now, it rarely gets that cold for any extended amount of time.