Heavy snow paralyses transport on Japanese coast

Heavy snow Friday in Japan brought traffic to a halt in some areas along the Sea of Japan. A cold air mass caused record snowfalls and record-low temperatures for December in northern Japan, the Meteorological Agency said. Niigata City was hit by 28 centimetres of snow, the heaviest for December in 24 years. The snowfall played havoc with the region's transportation system.
Twenty-four domestic flights and 62 train services were cancelled while an international flight was delayed for eight hours. In northern Japan, local observatories measured 93 centimetres of snow in Tsuruoka and 86 centimetres in Akita on Thursday, both breaking accumulation records in December, the Kyodo News agency reported.