Last month was the coldest December on record in most parts of Japan as a series of powerful cold air masses moved over the country, according to a Meteorological Agency survey released Wednesday.
The average temperature for the month was 2.7 degrees lower than normal in eastern Japan, covering the Kanto, Hokuriku and Tokai regions, and down 2.8 degrees in the western areas, including the Kinki and Chugoku regions and Shikoku and Kyushu.
Those figures show the largest negative disparities for the areas since the agency began keeping statistics in 1946.
The temperature disparities were also significant in northern and northeastern Japan, which covers the Hokkaido and Tohoku regions, where the average temperature dropped by 1.9. The southwestern islands saw the average fall by 1.5.
It was the first time in 20 years that such large drops in the monthly averages were recorded across the nation, it said.
Total snowfall for the month logged record highs in 24 locations, including the city of Akita with 226 cm, compared with the previous record of 205 cm, recorded in 1973.
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