Furano Now: Friday 18th December 2015
- Dec 18, 2015
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 14, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Furano region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 5cm
Snowfall at base this season 191cm
Posted on Friday 18th December 2015 This is an archived report. The latest Furano Now report can be found here.
Nice snows today in Furano.
But it hasn't accumulated enough to open the Kitanomine Zone today, which is a bugger. Mother Nature is a minx.
The Furano Zone is lovely though, with about 5cm fresh on top. Forecast is for snow tonight and tomorrow so hopefully it will be enough to open the lifts and gondola in Kitanomine Zone and give access to the full resort to snow riders. We shall see.
I've been trying to publish this all day (keep getting distracted) so can reliably report it snowed most of the morning, sunny break in town about midday, and now (2pm) is cloudy and cold. Judging by the clouds over the resort, is snowing up top right now.
Yesterday the resort downgraded their base to 65cm and I have estimated it at 70cm after this snowfall.
Now if you would please indulge me I think it is my duty to try and help readers manage their expectations of their Japanese snow holiday.
I am meeting a lot of visitors in recent days who cancelled their trips to coastal or southern resorts in Japan to ski and board here in Furano. Mostly they are loving it, but some are frustrated and that's a real pity. Mainly it's because they have booked accommodation that isn't ski-in to the Furano Zone and the local busses don't run in that direction until 11am. This frustration seems to snowball into a bit of grief for the trip they cancelled. Not good.
I would never talk anyone out of coming to Furano because I love it. And truthfully, the majority of last minute plan changers I have met are loving it, too. Some might become converts in fact, especially if they discover the backcountry.
But if you make new plans please consider what will make you happy on your holiday. And if ski-in matters to you, the only ski-in at the moment is near the Furano Zone which is near the New Furano Prince Hotel. That is 7km from Furano train station for reference and probably about 4km from Kitanomine Village by roadway.
When the Kitanomine Zone opens, very soon we hope, then anywhere in Kitanomine will be within about a 15 minute walk to the resort.
Furano Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Friday 18th December 2015 Total snowfall at base 191cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 15 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 45cm (5th December) November 2015 snowfall 77cm reported on 6 days December 2015 snowfall 114cm reported on 9 days |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Furano. The 'new snowfall' number represents the amount of snow measured since the previous report. All opinions are those of the individual reporters. Information regarding ski area operations is manually checked every morning and is believed to be correct at the time of the report.