The weather agency issued the long-range weather forecasting of this winter last autumn, and it said that we would have a mild winter in the coming winter. As they said, it has actually been warmer than the usual year.
However, Japan was hit by a fierce cold wave today. Okinawa, which is located in the subtropical zone, had its first-ever snowfall since it started to record meteorological data 115 years ago. It didn't snow in my hometown, as it faces the Seto inland sea and has a rather warm climate, but some districts in the suburbs had snow, partially heavy.
I make it a point to change the tires of my car into winter tires every year as I want to go anywhere whenever I want. Most people around me, however, take no precautions against snowfall. The following pictures show the scene of my commute. I usually drive my car at the speed of 80 km/h here, but today, the traffic was jammed. It took an hour for the distance that I drive in 5 minutes on usual days.
As for my car, it left nothing to be desired thanks to the new winter tires. As I wrote in the previous entry, I gave up visiting Canada in the spring vacation and so I'm wondering about Hokkaido as the destination of the vacation even if it had heavy snowfall.
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