Sapporo - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the overall climate: is it extremely hot or cold, wet or dry, at any time of year, for example?
4 very distict seasons. Winters are long and snowy. 5m of snow in the city and 15m in the mountains. Obviously, this makes for a nasty mud season in spring. Summers are comfortable with little of the humidity experienced by Tokyo and other southern locations. No real rain season. - Sep 2015
Four seasons, with spring being the worst. If you are only coming for a visit, don't come March - May! Winters are extremely wintery, with incredible amounts of snow. Buffalo averages just under 8 feet of snow per year. Sapporo averages over 16 feet, more than twice as much. It truly is unbelievable. Cold, of course, but not to extremes. Most winter days have highs in the 20's, rarely does it get below zero Fahrenheit. Tons of winter activities available. Downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, ice skating, professional hockey, organized snowball fights (like a sport).
In spring the snow starts to get yucky, but the incredible accumulations means it stays around for months, melting in the afternoon, freezing again at night, and being extremely treacherous in the morning. On TV one sees beautiful cherry blossoms all over the rest of Japan, but in Sapporo it is still muddy and cold with no leaves on the trees. Cherries don't bloom until well into May most years and even then it can still be chilly. Eventually, however, the snow melts and the mud dries and gives way to a glorious summer.
June highs are usually in the 70s, July and August in the 80s, with maybe 10-15 days pushing or slightly exceeding 90 degrees. It never approaches 100 in Sapporo. Fall is underrated and beautiful. Lots of trees changing colors and crisp, but no cold weather until November. First snow almost always happens sometime in November, but melts. By Christmas the snow is here to stay. Non-white Christmases in Sapporo are unheard of. - Sep 2011
