Hakuba Now: Sunday 7th May 2017
- May 7, 2017
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 16, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Hakuba region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 527cm
Posted on Sunday 7th May 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Hakuba Now report can be found here.
Today (Sunday 7th May) is of course the last day of the official ski and snowboard season in Hakuba.
From tomorrow, the ski lifts will be rested and no doubt there will be lots of ‘otsukaresama’ parties going on in the village this week. I might even be going to a few myself!
The weather is suitably fine for this last day of the season. Much better than the rainy conditions that we had yesterday. The sun is out and it should be comfortably warm - not too much. Resort operations should be as they were yesterday and hopefully not affected by the wind that is being reported at higher elevations.
Let’s take this opportunity to a look back on the 2016-2017 Hakuba season.
After the disappointing 2015-2016 season, there were a few worries in the early part of the season. It was Thursday 8th December when the first ski lifts were able to start moving and it kind of took a while for things to get going properly. Some people were inevitably starting to see similarities to the slow start of the previous season...
But then things really kicked into gear in style in the second week of January and from that point things felt like they were ‘back to normal’. That’s what we like!
There were a few warmer and wet spells mid-season, but generally we enjoyed good snowfall and some impressive snowfall numbers being reported especially on-mountain.
I have enjoyed some fantastic days this season and often enjoyed excellent snow conditions. Of course I am lucky enough to be able to time my outings but I have talked to quite a few people on the ski lifts and in bars in the evening, and it would seem that most people were having huge amounts of fun and loving the snow in Hakuba.
The trend of more and more visitors from overseas once again shows no sign of slowing down. Let’s international!
An important word about snowfall numbers
Note: personal opinion!
The ‘observed snowfall’ number that I report each day is how much snow I observe near Happo-one base. It’s basically how much snow you can expect at village/base levels. ‘Hakuba’ covers a fairly wide area and so there is at times inevitably going to be more or less snow in different parts of the village and by different resorts.
For more of an explanation of this reported ‘observed snowfall’ number - and why we report it - please read the SnowJapan message that can be found below.
I think it is true that Hakuba typically gets less snow at village level compared with some other regions. My good friend lives over in Yuzawa town in Niigata Prefecture and we often compare and discuss this kind of thing. Yuzawa town is at an elevation of around 360m and they get famously impressive amounts of snow falling at that level. The ski resorts over in Yuzawa mostly have less vertical than the ski resorts in Hakuba. The mountains are also mostly smaller and upper elevations are not as high. This all means that in Yuzawa the difference in the amount of snow falling at town and on the ski slopes is less than the difference that we experience here in Hakuba.
They also generally don’t enjoy the same quality of snow as we do in my opinion -- but that’s an entirely different and controversial topic to fight over!
The ski resorts in Hakuba get a lot more snowfall at higher elevations than down at base levels. As this is of course an important point, every day I make a point of reporting the on-mountain snowfall numbers that the ski resorts around Hakuba are themselves publishing each morning. I mention this snowfall every day in the individual ski resort data part of my reports, as well as near the top of my reports.
So I really wouldn't be surprised if there was as much snow falling up there as falls on the mountains in Yuzawa.
Whatever... it's a lot!
Nature is of course very complex and reporting on snow is never going to be simple and clear-cut especially in an area as wide as Hakuba.
Anyway, I do my best with the reporting and I tell you what I see with my own eyes each day.
Once the lovely spring weather is out of the way, the ‘rainy season’ will be next up and then into summer. Even here in Hakuba, the summer heat can be brutal - but we have those beautiful large mountains to climb and we are able to escape to higher altitudes. Ropeways will be operating to help you get up there. Please do check with the resorts for the latest information.
That’s it from me for the 2016-2017 season and this is my last report of the season.
On behalf of the good folks running SnowJapan, thank you for reading the Hakuba Now reports. I’ll be back again later in the year when things start cooling down and the 2017-2018 winter season is approaching.
See you in autumn!
Hakuba Now 2016-2017 season |
Data as of Sunday 7th May 2017 Total snowfall at base so far 527cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 59 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 57cm (13th January) November 2016 snowfall 1cm reported on 1 day December 2016 snowfall 64cm reported on 11 days January 2017 snowfall 242cm reported on 20 days February 2017 snowfall 151cm reported on 16 days March 2017 snowfall 65cm reported on 10 days April 2017 snowfall 4cm reported on 1 day May 2017 snowfall 0cm |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Hakuba. 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.