Towering Snow Corridors In Japan; Northern Hemisphere Snow Mass Needs A Bigger Chart; $9 Trillion For 0.3%; + Judge Sanctions Michael Mann...

...for "Bad-Faith Trial Misconduct".

Towering Snow Corridors In Japan

Northern Japan's Hakkoda-Towada Gold Line is being carved into a stunning 'snow corridor' after record-breaking seasonal snowfall buried the region. Crews in Aomori are clearing walls expected to reach towering 8 meters (23.3 feet) high.

By February 22, snow at Sukayu had already piled up to 4.4 m (14.4 ft) —almost double last year’s level. Bulldozers and rotary snowplows are now carving an 8 km (5 mile) stretch between Sukayu and Yachi, marking the transition from winter to spring.

Snow removal chief Koichi Sakumi remarked, "With so much snow, we aim to create walls visitors will love."

A rotary snowplow clearing a stretch of road in the north Japan city of Aomori, March 12 [Mainichi/Shintaro Matsumoto]

Northern Hemisphere Snow Mass Needs A Bigger Chart

While extent appears average, the latest data point for the Northern Hemisphere snow mass is smashing all-time records.

The current winter season has seen snow accumulation exceed historical averages by a staggering margin, pushing past the standard deviation of past decades and threatening to punch through the Finnish Meteorological Institute's top legend.

Snow mass, as of March 10, stands at almost 3,500 Gigatons—which is some 1,100 Gigatons above the 1982-2012 average:

[FMI]