Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletter to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.Without the images, it might be hard to wrap your mind around the amount of snow blanketing the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan.

You've heard of lake-effect snow in the Great Lakes. Check out what a larger sea and bitter cold air helped to generate in parts of Japan.

Record-breaking snowfall fell on Japan ‘s northern main island of Hokkaido, disrupting traffic, causing airport closures and delaying deliveries on Tuesday. The Hokkaido prefectural government said record-breaking snowfall has been observed especially in the eastern regions of the island,