NEW – 2024 Drift Ice Information

January 19th, yesterday, was the much awaited day in Abashiri.

The drift ice showed up in the horizon marking the “first day of the drift ice” for this year. This was about 20km away from the shore.

Thanks to the strong north wind we had yesterday, the drift ice came way nearer to the shore by this morning, as near as only 3km away. That’s a distance of 17km that the ice traveled in one day.

In addition, today was the first day of the drift ice cruiser to sail out to the ice belt. I heard that the passengers were able to enjoy being in the midst of the ice belt for nearly 30 minutes today.

Now, being surrounded by ice, Abashiri should be having colder days. Today, the highest temperature was minus 5 degrees centigrade (21 degrees fahrenheit).

Severe cold, but little snow. This is how winter in Abashiri should be like 🙂