The central government has deployed troops to help residents in Aomori, the heaviest-hit region where as much as 4.5 metres (15 feet) of snow remains on the ground in remote areas.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held a special cabinet-level meeting on Tuesday morning to instruct ministers to do all they can to prevent deaths and accidents.
A powerful cold air mass has resulted in heavy snow along the Sea of Japan coast in recent weeks, with some areas seeing more than double the usual volumes.
Since January 20 through Tuesday, 30 people have died as a result of the heavy snow, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Among them was Kina Jin, 91, whose body was found under a pile of snow at her home in Ajigasawa, Aomori, a local police official told AFP on a condition of anonymity.
Police believe snow from her rooftop fell on her. The cause of her death was suffocation, the official said. An aluminium shovel was found next to her body.
"As it gets warmer, the accumulated snow melts and falls. It depends on the volume (of snow) and the temperature. Under the rooftop is a dangerous place," the official told AFP.
Aomori governor Soichiro Miyashita said on Monday he had asked Japan's military to offer disaster relief.
He said he asked troops to help the region's elderly who live alone and need help clearing snow.
Walls of snow as high as 1.8 metres are on the ground of the regional capital of Aomori city, the governor said, adding that local workers clearing snow from roads and houses were overwhelmed.
"The danger of life-threatening incidents, such as fatal accidents due to falling snow from the roofs or collapsing buildings, is imminent," he said in the press conference.
Late-January US snowstorm wasn't historically exceptional: NOAA
Washington, United States Feb 2, 2026 -
Despite its deadly impacts, the recent winter storm that battered much of the United States was not historically exceptional, official data showed Monday.
The January 23-26 system dumped snow and crippling ice from New Mexico to Maine, with some of the worst effects felt in the South, and it was linked to more than 100 deaths.
But according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the storm ranked only as a Category 3, or "major," on the Regional Snowfall Index (RSI) -- a scale that measures the societal impact of snowstorms from 0 to 5 and has been calculated back to 1900.
Category 5 storms are extremely rare, accounting for about one percent of events classified as "extreme," while Categories 0 and 1 are common, together making up 79 percent of storms.
Last week's system reached Category 3 levels in the Ohio Valley and the South, Category 2 in the Northeast, Category 1 in the Southeast, and Category 0 in the Upper Midwest and Northern Rockies and Plains.
"Snowstorms are complex and impacts can be determined by a number of varying factors, which makes communicating the severity of a snowstorm challenging," John Bateman, a NOAA meteorologist, told AFP.
"For the Regional Snowfall Index (RSI), the area of snowfall, the amount of snowfall, and the number of people living within the snowfall boundaries are used to determine a range of impacts."
By comparison, the "Blizzard of 1996" was a Category 5 storm that struck the Northeast in January of that year, affecting more than 58 million people. The "Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011" impacted four regions and reached Category 5 intensity in the Ohio Valley and Category 3 in the South.
More notable than the snowfall itself was the prolonged blast of extreme cold that followed, hardening snow into what has been informally dubbed "snowcrete" and making cleanup efforts especially difficult.
Another storm hit the South over the weekend, with cold-stunned iguanas falling from trees in normally mild Florida, while the city of Lexington in North Carolina recorded 16 inches (40 centimeters) of snow.
New York records 13 cold-related deaths since late January
New York (AFP) Feb 2, 2026 -
New York has counted 13 hypothermia-related deaths as the city faces an exceptional cold snap that swept large parts of the United States in late January, its mayor said Monday.
The metropolis "could very well be in the middle of the longest period of consecutive sub 32 degree (0C) weather in our city's entire history," said Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
He told reporters that 16 New Yorkers have died during the cold weather spell. Hypothermia is believed to have "played a role" in 13, while three are considered drug overdoses.
None of these people were camping on the street at the time of their deaths, the mayor added. Some had previously been in contact with emergency shelter services.
Mamdani said the city has activated emergency warming centers and a fleet of 20 vehicles staffed with healthcare professionals.
"As of this morning, we have made more than 930 placements to shelters and safe havens. We have also involuntarily transported 18 New Yorkers who were determined to be a danger to themselves or to others," he said.
Between 2005 and 2021, New York recorded between 9 and 27 cold-related deaths per year, according to official statistics. That number rose to 34 in 2021 and 54 in 2022.
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