File:Snow in Hokkaido (MODIS 2016-12-31).jpg

English: The island of Hokkaido, Japan is known for its wide-open spaces, fields of wildflowers, bubbling hot springs, steaming volcanoes - as well as for an abundance of light, powdery snow that makes the island a mecca for skiing and snowboarding. The month of December typically brings the onset of winter weather, with temperatures dropping through the month as the powder begins to pile up.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image on December 19, 2016, as it flew over Hokkaido.

A layer of white snow spreads across the entire island, save for a small piece land on the southeastern coast. In the west, the large Lake Toyu and Lake Shikotsu both appear blue, indicating that the temperatures have not been frigid enough to begin to freeze the lakes.

The snow began to fall early this year in Japan. On November 16 two ski resorts in Hokkaido reported 110 cm (43 in) of snowfall for the month. On December 16 the region had whitened even more, with those two resorts reporting about 180 cm (70 in) of snowfall, while a third resort southwest of the city of Sapporo reported over twice that amount. Additional snow fell on December 25, when, according to JapanToday the heaviest snow in 50 years fell on Sapporo, forcing cancellation of at least 100 airline flights and hundreds of trains. 96 cm (38 in) of snow fell in Sapporo that night, the heaviest snowfall since 1996.