- Photos and videos showed snow whipping through Kyoto's main train station.
- The major rail hub has a rail concourse that's partially open to the elements.
People at Japan's Kyoto station on Tuesday were in for a chilly surprise when it started snowing indoors.
Kyoto station has a central concourse that leaves it partially open to the elements. While this might work in mild weather, photos and videos of the transport hub posted to Twitter showed it snowing inside the station.
The videos showed people trying to navigate the station while snow whipped around them.
—わかみー (@wakamie17) January 24, 2023
Another video showed winds blowing snow into the main concourse.
—kamui.com (@djkamui_com) January 24, 2023
The station's architecture appears to have created a wind corridor through which snow could get in, leaving some people to trudge across the rail hub in the snow.
—生前予約パーティー (@glasphiesleob) January 24, 2023
In another photo, a soft layer of snow can be seen blanketing tables and chairs in the station's rail concourse.
—まろまろ (@maroojimarosan) January 24, 2023
—キニー・コーヴェル (@kinee_tapioka) January 24, 2023
Many parts of Japan saw heavy snowfall this week after a cold snap hit western and eastern Japan on Tuesday. The unusually cold weather and uncharacteristically heavy snowfall caused flight and train cancellations across the country, per Reuters.
At least four people have died in Japan while working to clear the snow, per CNN. Kevin Trenberth, a weather expert from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, told CNN that extreme weather events like the cold snap sweeping East Asia are the "new norm." Trenberth added that people should expect that "weather extremes are going to be worse than they were before."