Winter storms hit Japan and the southern USA by Jo Farrow
Japan was battered by a winter storm, on Tuesday causing commuter chaos. Domestic flights were cancelled and train services were suspended. The famous bullet trains were delayed in northern and western areas due to the snow and ice.
The worst hit area was the north side of Honshu but there was snow for Kyushu and Hokkaido. Toyana and Tottori airports on the north coast, were both reporting blizzard conditions on Tuesday afternoon. Tokyo was relatively sheltered being to the south of the mountains which run along the spine of the Honshu (the largest Japanese island).
With snow already lying over much of the north side of Honshu and Hokkaido, the Japanese Met. Service were predicting up to 90cms (3 feet) of snow over the mountainous areas in the north by the end of Wednesday. Road conditions were also considered treacherous with ice, poor visibility, gusty winds and the risk of snow slides.
There was also snow on the southern Japanese island of Shikoku, which hardly ever sees snow. The city of Kochi received a blanket of snow, the first time in nearly 20 years.
It looks like there will still be some heavy snowfall and strong winds for Japan on Wednesday but the weather will improve for the end of the week.
Meanwhile, another winter storm affected the southern part of Colorado, leaving a couple of feet of snow before heading off southwards towards Texas. The southern state is now bracing itself for heavy snowfall and some dreadful conditions. To the east, Georgia is slowly recovering from the ice storm which struck at the weekend. The ice is now beginning to melt, the airports are reopening but the recovery process is pretty slow.
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