This Sept. 7, 2021 photo taken from a Mainichi Shimbun helicopter shows snow dusting the summit of Mount Fuji. The date was initially announced as the peak's first snowcap of the season, but this was rescinded on Sept. 20 due to high temperatures. (Mainichi/Hiroshi Maruyama)

       KOFU -- This time it's official.

       Mount Fuji got its first snowcap of the season on Sept. 26, the local meteorological office in this central Japan city announced. The spectacle on Japan's highest mountain arrived six days earlier than the average year and two days earlier than in 2020.

       Initially, the first snowcap of the season on the 3,776-meter mountain had been announced on Sept. 7, but the record was rescinded on Sept. 22 because it no longer met the "snowcap" criteria after the average high temperatures on the peak were revised on Sept. 20.

       Just after 4 p.m. on Sept. 26, a Japan Meteorological Agency Kofu Local Meteorological Office staffer visually confirmed through a break in the clouds that the top of the mountain was covered in snow. At the summit, a low temperature of minus 2.1 degrees Celsius was observed at 4:30 a.m.

       The first snowcap on Mount Fuji is announced when it is visible from the local meteorological office in Yamanashi Prefecture after the daily average temperature at the summit has reached its highest.

       A representative of the local meteorological office said, "Given the recent rescission of the record, we made a careful decision after discussing it with higher authorities."

       (Japanese original by Yusuke Tanabe, Kofu Bureau)

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