Snow prediction 2015
Your correspondent from Takayama is
actually a weather-forecast freak. Back in the days when he was living in Hong
Kong, whenever a typhoon was approaching, he would almost certainly check its
latest position and predicted route every hour, and read heated discussions on
weather forums about whether the observatory had hoisted a proper typhoon
warning signal at a proper time (without participating). Since dear typhoons
almost never grace Takayama with their presence, he thus diverted most of his
energy and enthusiasm to predicting first snow. With the autumn colors fading
away soon, the time has come again to hold this game among our staff. First
snow normally falls around mid November in Takayama downtown area, but I’ve a
feeling that this year it will fall a bit later than usual, not least the
famous snow-predicting gingko tree at Kokubunji temple hasn’t yet turned
completely yellow.
Humidity also matters, but in general:
3 degree Celsius: rain
2 degree Celsius: sleet
1 degree Celsius: wet snow
0 degree Celsius: snow that will stay on
the ground
There was some confusion last year when my
colleague and I looked out the window one day, and saw snow-like particles
falling from the sky. We thus rushed out in excitement, thinking first snow at
last fell, but we were later told that it was hail not snow. How embarrassing!
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