Madarao Now: Friday 1st April 2016
- Apr 1, 2016
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Madarao region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 483cm
Weather overview Fine
Wind Light
Temperature -
Visibility Excellent
Posted on Friday 1st April 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Madarao Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Madarao Kogen.
Yesterday we enjoyed some fine weather on what was the last day of the 2015-2016 season for Madarao Kogen (neighbouring Tangram Ski Circus is open through until Sunday).
And this will be my last report of the 2015-2016 season.
Once a season gets started, it really does flash by way too quickly - mostly from having so much fun, though this season there were other things going on… things that we really are not used to!
It has definitely been something of a unique season for this region and indeed many areas of Japan. This season definitely ‘wins’ the unwanted award for ‘the least snow during a season’ of recent times at least, and locals of quite an age will also be hard pushed to remember a season with as little snowfall as during 2015-2016.
There was of course snow – and indeed in amounts that some ski resorts in other parts of the world would be glad to get. And I have enjoyed some very fine days this last season, and I know lots of other people who have visited and had a great time.
The difference this last season has been that there just wasn’t much of that full-on, almost overwhelmingly heavy and consistent snowfall that we are used to (and so love) in this region. Yes, we are usually spoilt; but we like being spoilt!
‘Less snow’ was not just an issue for this part of northern Nagano Prefecture either with most ski resort areas of the main island of Honshu receiving less snow than usual in this ‘danto’ (or ‘mild winter’).
Here’s the amount of snow that I have observed over the past three seasons here in Madarao:
2015-2016 season: 483cm total
2014-2015 season: 1055cm total
2013-2014 season: 734cm total
As you can see, this season I observed less than half of the total amount of snow that I did last season. That’s pretty significant, even considering that last year was quite famous for being one of particularly abundant snowfall. The season before we still got about 1.5 times the amount of snow that we did this season.
Just going back to that comment about ‘being spoilt’. We’re not used to worrying about snowfall – it just falls, and usually in huge amounts - but this season everyone was, and it was a constant topic of conversation throughout the season.
It has to be said that the resort did an excellent job in keeping open and the slopes in decent condition until the end of March as originally planned.. helped along by a decent amount of March snowfall (more than in March last year actually!), and of course lots of hard work and effort.
Otsukaresama deshita!
I think the main point to take from this season wrap report is this...
If you are reading researching about Madarao Kogen - and indeed any of the other regions covered in the reports on SnowJapan - please do take the time to look back at previous seasons to get an idea of what is ‘normal’ or ‘average’. Because 2015/2016 was certainly not ‘normal’ or ‘average’.
Let’s hope we get back to normal next season. I’m confident we will!
In the meantime, I hope you have a great spring and summer and I hope to see you back here in late autumn.
Madarao Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Friday 1st April 2016 Total snowfall at base 483cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 46 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 38cm (on 1st March) November 2015 snowfall 0cm December 2015 snowfall 99cm reported on 9 days January 2016 snowfall 161cm reported on 15 days February 2016 snowfall 124cm reported on 11 days March 2016 snowfall 99cm reported on 11 days |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Madarao. 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.