Madarao Now: Tuesday 31st January 2017
- Jan 31, 2017
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 5, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Madarao region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 31cm
Snowfall at base this season 628cm
Weather overview Cloud
Wind Slight
Temperature -
Visibility Fair
Posted on Tuesday 31st January 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Madarao Now report can be found here.
Yes, this is much much better!
The memories of rain of yesterday morning quickly washed away with the sight of a good new layer of fresh snowfall. :)
The rain turned into snow in the afternoon and this morning the resort is reporting 30cm of fresh snowfall; my measure gives me 31cm. Enough to give us a good reset for this morning by the looks and I might just need to go and check for myself.
Snow clouds still around but right at this moment it has stopped. There's even a bit of sun somehow making it's way through the clouds just now... it looks like it might get brighter and clear a bit. There's more snow forecast to move in by tomorrow night though, but maybe some sunshine before that happens. So it sounds like it should be a good few days.
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A message from SnowJapan
Firstly, we would again like to thank everyone who has sent in messages this season regarding our daily reports and website in general. We read them all and appreciate the feedback. And we hope that if you have already visited Japan this season, you timed it well with conditions at your chosen destination.
It is perhaps inevitable that some people will compare the daily Now reports from different regions of Japan, and in particularly the observed new snowfall data that is posted on the reports. But if you do that please keep in mind that doing so is not really comparing like-for-like… and it’s certainly not ‘the whole picture’.
By comparing the observed snowfall data, essentially you are comparing how much snow is falling at base areas. While we believe that is a very interesting and useful piece of data - and is in fact the only practical first-hand data that could possibly be consistently recorded once a day – it is only one part of the situation.
Other important information, including the snowfall that ski resorts themselves might be reporting at higher elevations, can be found within the text of the report when available.
That is why we highly recommend that if you really want to get a more complete picture of what is going on in each of the areas covered in our reports, you should go through the individual reports including all the archives.
A few other quick points:
Each report is written independently from the other reports, by different people.
The reports are not ‘connected’ in any way.
For one reporter, a temperature of -2C might be described as ‘cold’. For another reporter, on the same day, a temperature of -2C might be described as ‘relatively warm’.
For one reporter, 15cm of snowfall overnight might be described as ‘a lot’. For another reporter, on the same day, 15cm of snowfall might be described as less exciting.
The person posting Niseko Now is reporting from Niseko, and is not making comparisons with any of the other reports, or considering what is happening elsewhere. (Unless clearly stated of course).
The person posting Hakuba Now is reporting from Hakuba, and the same applies.
While each report is coming to you from the respective resort base areas, some ski resorts have much more ‘vertical’ than others. Some will experience much more of a difference in the amount of snow that falls at base/village level than falls at higher elevations.
And one more very important thing.
If the reporters pretended to be overly-excited about conditions even when they are actually sub-par… not only would that be intentionally misleading, but how would you then know when they really were genuinely excited by excellent conditions?
Being able to clearly distinguish between varying situations is one of the real advantages of not feeling any need to talk up or sugar-coat conditions. Remember, we’re not a glossy travel brochure selling you holidays and tours.
What we are trying to do is to provide our readership with honest, interesting and informative reports. And we will continue to do that.
Thank you!
Madarao Now 2016-2017 season |
Data as of Tuesday 31st January 2017 Total snowfall at base 628cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 31 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 53cm (on 14th and 15th January) November 2016 snowfall 9cm reported on 4 days December 2016 snowfall 211cm reported on 14 days January 2017 snowfall 408cm reported on 23 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.