Sukayu, a hot springs resort area in Aomori Prefecture, registered Monday the largest snowfall ever recorded by the nation's currently existing observatories, the weather agency said.
As of 11 a.m., 550 cm of snow had piled up, breaking the previous high of 529 cm that was recorded in the area Sunday afternoon as a winter weather system swept across the Tohoku region, the Meteorological Agency's Aomori Observatory said.
"The snow is expected to reach a new high" in Sukayu later in the day, an Aomori observatory official said.
Among other locations in Tohoku, Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, saw 152 cm of snow, while Nishiwaga, Iwate Prefecture, measured 279 cm and Tadami, Fukushima Prefecture, hit 333 cm — record highs for all three spots, the Sendai observatory said.
East Japan Railway Co. partially suspended service on the Fukushima-Shinjo section of the Yamagata Shinkansen Line.
