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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
John Dunne

Mount Fuji snowless in November for the first time in 130 years

Mount Fuji is snowless in November after warmer temperatures than usual. - (EPA)

Mount Fuji is snowless in November for 130 years after unseasonally warm weather in Japan.

The lack of snow on the UNESCO World Heritage site, as of Tuesday, breaks the previous record when snow did not arrive until October 16 in 2016.

Traditionally flurries of snow fall on the 12,300ft high mountain by October 2, a month after the end of the hiking season.

Last year snow fell on the mountain for the first time on October 5, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

People have posted photos on social media showing the bare mountain.

Some shared worries that climate change could be responsible.

The JMA's Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which has kept weather data on Mount Fuji since 1894, said October's warmer weather had ruled out snowfall.

The average October temperature is minus 2 Celsius (28.4 Fahrenheit) at the summit.

But this year it was 1.6 Celsius, (34.9 F), a record high since 1932.

Japan this year also had an unusually hot summer and warm autumn.

The mountain whose full name is “Fujisan” used to be a place of pilgrimage.

The mountain with its snowy top and near symmetrical slopes have been the subject of numerous forms of art, including Japanese ukiyoe artist Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

It attracts hikers who climb to the summit to see the sunrise.

However, tonnes of rubbish has been left on the mountain triggering calls for measures to limit numbers on Fuji.

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