Snow record for Japanese city of Obihiro

When a couple of inches of snow falls in Britain it can often lead to chaos, but spare a thought for the city of Obihiro on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan. Last Tuesday Obihiro was buried in 129cm (more than 4ft) of snow that fell in only 12 hours, a record for the city. The monstrous snowfall swamped roads, vehicles were marooned, trains and planes were cancelled and schools closed.

Northern Japan is no stranger to gigantic falls of snow as bitterly cold air sweeping down from Siberia picks up moisture from the relatively warm Sea of Japan or Pacific Ocean and generates huge snowfalls over land. The world record for 24-hour snowfall is thought to have been at Mount Ibuki in Japan