Japan, Mount Fuji is snow-free for the first time in November

Alarm due to the climatic anomaly on the top of the most famous and venerated mountain of the Rising Sun after a very hot summer and October.

• For the first time in 130 years, it still hasn't snowed on the top of Mount Fuji in Japan in November.
• The previous record was from 1955 and 2016:in these two cases the first snow day was October 26th.
• For meteorologists the event "is consistent with predictions of a warming world".

When Katsushika Hokusai, in the first half of the nineteenth century, he created the famous ones 36 views of Mount Fuji, the Japanese painter chose to represent the iconic mountain in ever-changing weather conditions and seasons.In practically every painting, however, there was at least a little snow at the summit.At the beginning of November 2025, however, Mount Fuji is still completely devoid of snow, marking the record for the delay in the first seasonal snowfall on its slopes, in 130 years of surveys (plus Hokusai's testimonies, in fact).Traditionally snow-capped since early October, Mount Fuji this year suffered the consequences of a particularly hot and long summer, with temperatures higher than 1.76 °C compared to normal and extreme peaks that saw temperatures of 35°C or more recorded in more than 1,500 locations, according to theJapan Meteorological Agency.

The anomalous heat that hit Mount Fuji 

But even the month of October, despite a slight drop in temperature, was still warmer than average, contributing to delaying the appearance of snow on the summit of Mount Fuji.Suffice it to say that the previous record for absence of snow was set in 1955 and then equaled in 2016:in those cases it had snowed for the first time on October 26th, but they never had to wait for November to arrive.The persistent heat was fueled by the anomalous position of a subtropical air current, which moved warmer air masses from the south towards Japan, preventing the arrival of cold currents.

The meteorologist Yutaka Katsuta he explained to the Guardian that “a drop in temperatures close to zero is essential for the formation of snow, a condition that has not yet occurred”.And that although individual events cannot be directly attributed to climate change, the situation observed on Mount Fuji "is consistent with predictions of a warming world."Mount Fuji, with its 3,776 meters, is one of the most loved destinations by Japanese and foreign tourists, with over 220 thousand people who face the climb during the summer season to admire the sunrise from the summit.However, Japanese authorities have introduced a daily access limit and visitor fee this year in an effort to preserve the mountain's fragile ecosystem and combat overcrowding, which is another major problem facing one of the culture's most enduring symbols. Japanese.