Snowcap on Japan's Mt Fuji this year is latest spotted in 130 years

By Tom Bateman and Mariko Katsumura

KOFU, Japan (Reuters) - Japan's revered Mount Fuji finally regained an iconic snowcap on Thursday, setting a record for the slowest snowfall in 130 years, the meteorological agency said.

The mountain reached the annual milestone on Oct. 5 last year, making this year's snowcap the latest to form since 1894, when the phenomenon was first recorded.

Staff of the Kofu observatory office, which declares the news every year, saw some snow near the 3,776-m (12,388-ft) summit of the country's tallest volcano on Thursday morning, the office said.

The "first snowfall" on Fuji is defined as the point when all or part of the mountain is covered with snow or "white-looking solid precipitation", the office added, and can be viewed from its observatory for the first time after summer.

Mt. Fuji's first snowfall has been delayed in recent years, although the reasons are still unclear, said Mamoru Matsumoto of the Kofu observatory office.

"I feel relieved to finally see the snow," he added.

"The temperature at the Fuji summit has been high since October, so I could foresee quite a big delay in the snowfall, which was giving me an uneasy feeling."

Unusually warm weather meant rainfall did not turn to snow in October, when the average temperature on the peak touched a record high of 1.6 degrees Celsius (34.88 degrees F), compared to the previous October average of -2 degrees C (28.4 degrees F), official data showed.

Japan's hottest summer this year drove up the average nationwide temperature from June to August by 1.76 degrees Celsius (3.17 degrees F) more than usual.

Maria Gabriel came to Japan specifically to see the sacred mountain, the 28 year-old tourist from Texas told Reuters.

"It's beautiful with the snow, and that was kind of what our expectations were coming (to Japan)," she said, adding that the mountain's snowcapped image was famous worldwide.

(Reporting by Tom Bateman; Writing by Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Nicholas Yong)