SAPPORO -- A lower amount of snowfall ahead of the start of the 71st Sapporo Snow Festival on Jan. 31 has snow-laden trucks rushing to Odori Park in Sapporo.
Double the usual number of trucks carrying snow from distant areas are heading to the festival's main venue in the city.
According to the festival's executive committee, there will be about 3,000 10-ton truckloads of snow arriving. About 1,200 truckloads of snow were scheduled to be delivered by Friday for huge sculptures at the park that require a longer time to be built.
Because the city and its environs cannot supply the necessary quantity of snow for the festival, 120 trucks, double the number in an average year, are being used to deliver snow from towns more than 30 kilometers away from Sapporo, such as Kutchan and Kyogoku.
December's amount of snow at 22 observation points in Hokkaido reached 48% of the annual amount, marking the lowest on record since 1961 when these statistics started to be kept, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency's Sapporo Regional Headquarters.
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