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Snow: 23 Live Cameras — piling, lingering, melting

Twenty-three cameras with snow in them: seven that turn white in winter, eleven where it lingers into summer, five where it has already melted into a river.

What you can see

Gather the cameras that show snow and three seasons turn out to be in three different places: where it falls and settles, where it refuses to go, and where it has become water.

The seven that turn white in winter are on flat ground, in places where people are. At Kenrokuen garden the winter ropes draw cones over the pines; cherry in spring and colour in autumn follow in the same frame. Kifune shrine sits in the Kurama valley, colder than the city, so in winter the snow can be lying here and nowhere else. Jakko-in temple in Ohara is the same: far enough out and high enough that on a snowy day only this corner is white. Jigokunuma is a pond clouded by steam and hot water, where winter mixes snow and vapour. Crater Lake National Park has one of the heaviest snowfalls in the United States. In Korea, Seolcheonbong stands about 1,500 m up, where winter turns the ridge white with snow and rime. And at Grasslands National Park in Canada, bison dig through the snow to reach the grass.

The eleven where it lingers are high mountains. On Mount Asama the snow left near the summit reads as both season and activity. Mount Gassan usually keeps streaks of snow into the summer, and Mount Chokai holds it late enough that white lines stay on the slope in summer. Mount Norikura has two cameras: from the plateau a snow patch survives the summer, and from the weather agency's camera the ridge keeps its snow for a long season. In the United States, Glacier National Park keeps snow near the summits through summer and Rocky Mountain National Park keeps it on the ridge in high summer. In New Zealand, Mount Ngauruhoe is known for its snow-capped cone, and Mount Ruapehu from the east holds its snow differently than it does from the north. From Xuejian in Taiwan, a clear day shows snow on the high Holy Ridge. Mount Cleveland in Alaska is the exception: its own heat is reported to clear the snow sooner than on the peaks beside it.

On the five where it has melted, no snow appears at all. What appears is the water level. Mount Tokachi erupted in 1926, melting snow all at once into a mudflow that did great damage below. The Kuzuryu and Hino carry Hakusan's meltwater to the Fukui plain, and rise easily in early spring. The Ara and Agano both drain snowy country and swell greatly in the spring melt. Among the Seki, Hime and Kurobe, the Kurobe carries meltwater from the Tateyama range onto its fan. The Hokkaido rivers rise in the spring melt and again at the end of summer when the typhoons come.

These twenty-three are gathered because snow is not only a winter thing. On one day you can see it lying, see it surviving a summer, and see the water it has become.

Cameras you can watch now: 23

10 video, 13 still. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

The seven winter cameras read best on the morning after a fall. Kifune and Jakko-in are higher than the city, so set beside the other Kyoto cameras there are days when only these are white.

The eleven mountains are the opposite. They are not about how much snow there is but how long it stays. Opening them in summer and still finding white on the slope is the point of this group.

The five rivers belong to early spring, when the snow above them turns into water and the level rises. Decisions about evacuating belong to your local authority; these cameras are for seeing how things look.

How often the picture changes depends on the source. The four Japan Meteorological Agency cameras refresh every 2 minutes, the three Ministry of the Environment ones every hour, and the two GeoNet ones every 10 minutes. The rest are video, moving while you watch.

Mind the time difference. The one Korean camera is on the same clock as Japan; the one in Taiwan is an hour behind. The two in New Zealand are three to four hours ahead, and the five in the United States and Canada are in darkness while Japan is in daylight. Open them on a Japanese morning and America is still on the afternoon before.

The sources give no date for a first snowfall or a lasting one, so this page sets none either.

If it isn't showing

The sources are Ishikawa Prefecture, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (the Kyoto National Highway Office and the river live streams), the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Ministry of the Environment, the US National Park Service, the Alaska Volcano Observatory, GeoNet New Zealand, the Korea National Park Service, Shei-Pa National Park and explore.org. Kenrokuen, Seolcheonbong, Grasslands, Xuejian and Mount Cleveland carry no sample image, either because the source does not allow the picture to be copied or because no usable frame has been taken yet; how to use this site, and where it comes from explains it. If a picture will not appear at all, see what is happening when a live camera shows nothing.

For the single day a mountain first turns white, First Snowcap is the better page. This one gathers snow across the whole year.

Each place in full: Cherry Blossom (Kenrokuen), The Hills of Kyoto (Kifune, Jakko-in), The Volcanoes of Tohoku (Hakkoda, Chokai), Mount Asama, Mount Norikura (both), Mount Tokachi, US and Korean National Parks (Crater Lake, Deogyusan), Rocky Mountain Parks (Glacier, Rocky Mountain), Tongariro National Park (Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu), Shei-Pa, Taiwan (Xuejian), West Aleutian Volcanoes (Cleveland), Bison and Musk Oxen (Grasslands), The Kuzuryu River, The Hokuriku and Shinetsu Rivers (two), The Rivers of Hokkaido.

The volcanoes themselves are under Volcano, the rivers under River, and the wider views under Nature.

Where to find Snow

Agencies publishing the cameras on this page

The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.

To find other cameras, go to the camera list. You can narrow all 439 cameras by format, region, subject and provider.