Originally Posted by
AlwaysAisle
I think you meant Tookamachi, 十日町, in Niigata. Maybe even the city website spell it as “tokamachi” but it is とうかまち as in “to” followed by “o” not とかまち.
The snow we just had in Tokyo was not every winter snow in Tokyo. Snowfall in Tokyo exceeded 20 cm (7.9 inches). Tokyo have not had this much snow fall in more than 20 years. I think expecting residents in Tokyo to just wait till snow to melt and not to shovel snow away after this much snow is little unreasonable. Coming from my experience as a resident of New York state and Massachusetts. And you should know that just because temperature is above freezing does not mean snow melts immidietely. I am PhD chemist so I can explain why...
Yes 十日町 (and it's almost always romanized as Tokamachi). One time, when I was there we got 297cm of snow in a week, which I think is the highest ever recorded weekly snowfall for any place with a population over 10,000 people.
It doesn't matter how much it snows. Tokyoites go out and shovel even when it's only 2cm. My post was really a comment on culture and psychology not the physical sciences, but since we're on the subject (and if you're bored) maybe you could post an explanation of how much time is required for snow to melt. The amount of heat required is pretty straightforward, but the heat transfer mechanism is little trickier so don't forget to include latitude, longitude, date and time, cloud cover, reflective index and temperature of nearby structures, water content, temperature, density and depth of the snow, temperature and heat capacity of the ground or pavement, etc. One simple easy to understand formula would be nice.
Oh... and BTW... it's Toukyou not Tokyo.