The snowcap on Japan’s Mt Fuji this year was the first seen in 130 years by Reuters

Written by Tom Bateman and Mariko Katsumura

KOFU, Japan (Reuters) – Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji was finally covered in snow on Thursday, setting a record for the slowest snowfall in 130 years, the weather agency said.

The mountain reached its annual peak on October 5 last year, making this year’s snowfall the most recent since 1894, when the phenomenon was first recorded.

Workers at the Kofu observatory office, which announces the news every year, saw snow near the 3,776-meter (12,388-ft) summit of the country’s tallest volcano on Thursday morning, the office said.

Fuji’s “first snow” is defined as the area where all or part of the mountain is covered by snow or “hard snow that looks white”, the office added, and can be viewed from its original position after summer.

The first snowfall of Mt. Fuji has been delayed in recent years, although the reasons are still unclear, said Mamoru Matsumoto of the Kofu observatory office.

“I feel relieved to finally see the snow,” he added.

“The temperature at the summit of Fuji has been high since October, so I foresaw a big delay in snowfall, which gave me an uneasy feeling.”

Unseasonably warm weather meant that rain did not turn to snow in October, when the average temperature at high altitude touched a record high of 1.6 degrees Celsius (34.88 degrees F), compared to the previous October average of -2 degrees C (28.4 degrees F) , official data are shown.

Japan’s hottest summer this year pushed the average temperature across the country from June to August 1.76 degrees Celsius (3.17 degrees F) above normal.

Maria Gabriel came to Japan specifically to see the sacred mountain, a 28-year-old tourist from Texas told Reuters.

“It is beautiful as it snows, it was like what we expected (in Japan),” he said, adding that the image of this snow-covered mountain is famous all over the world.