Record snow, winds, and blizzards leave over 35 000 homes without power in Hokkaido
Record snow and winds struck Hokkaido, Japan, overnight December 14–15, 2025, and left tens of thousands without power.
うん！見えん！#釧路#ホワイトアウト pic.twitter.com/6xByEwxxv2
— (@kimur_taxi_946) December 14, 2025
A rapidly intensifying low-pressure system brought heavy snow and strong winds, creating blizzard-like conditions in Hokkaido on Monday.
Parts of eastern Hokkaido recorded 50 cm (20 inches) or more of snow in the 24 hours ending at 08:00 local time on December 15, including 68 cm (26.7 inches) in Kamisatsunai and Taiki in the Tokachi area, and 56 cm (22 inches) near Lake Akan in the Kushiro area.
Engaru Town received 60 cm (23.6 inches) in 12 hours, setting a new daily snow record for December 15. A gust of 145.8 km/h (90.5 mph) was recorded in Kamishibetsu, Nakashibetsu Town, the highest in recorded history for the area, FNN reported.
According to the Hokkaido Electric Power Network, Inc., strong winds caused power outages affecting 35 910 customer across Hokkaido around 06:30 LT, primarily in the Okhotsk and Kushiro areas, reported The Japan News.
Featured image credit: kimur_taxi_946
I am an Assistant Editor and Severe Weather & Science Journalist at The Watchers, specializing in real-time severe weather coverage, geophysical event reporting, and research-driven scientific analysis. You can reach me at rishav(at)watchers(.)news.
Glad to have this website, im making a geographical report presentation for event that took place ove rthe week and its good information like this is availible to the public. Exept for the ever so fancy english folk, they cannot even see google immages and wikipedia anymore. Geogre Orwell was right.
Is Japan snow storm in December? Why do you say November?
Temporal anomaly in lead. Thanks! Corrected