Heavy snowfall in Japan\u2019s northern regions caused widespread travel disruptions on Tuesday, December 31, as families prepared to celebrate the New Year together. The harsh weather led to the cancellation of dozens of flights, stranding thousands of passengers.<\/p>\n
Japan Airlines cancelled 42 flights to and from Hokkaido, the country\u2019s northernmost island, affecting nearly 6,400 passengers by early afternoon.<\/p>\n
Rival airline ANA also grounded 14 flights, impacting 800 travellers and warning of further delays and cancellations due to ongoing storms.<\/p>\n
At New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido\u2019s main travel hub, long lines of passengers seeking alternative flights filled the departure halls. Some braced for the possibility of ushering in 2025 within the airport.<\/p>\n
The Japan Meteorological Agency reported over 20 centimeters of snowfall in parts of Hokkaido since Monday, with conditions worsening on Tuesday morning. Strong winds and heavy snow are expected to persist into New Year\u2019s Day, posing ongoing travel challenges.<\/p>\n
This winter\u2019s harsh weather follows a year of climate extremes in Japan. The summer of 2024 tied as the hottest on record, while the autumn was the warmest in 126 years of data. The absence of Mount Fuji\u2019s iconic snowcap until November further highlighted the impacts of a warming climate.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
As travellers face disrupted plans, Japan\u2019s northern communities brace for continued snowfall into the new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Severe snowfall in Japan\u2019s northern regions grounded dozens of flights on New Year\u2019s Eve, leaving thousands stranded as families tried to reunite for the holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":42708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[23978,9067,1829,1162,18906],"class_list":["post-42707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japan","tag-ana","tag-hokkaido","tag-japan-airlines","tag-japan-meteorological-agency","tag-mount-fuji"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42709,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42707\/revisions\/42709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}