Myoko Now: Wednesday 24th January 2018
- Jan 24, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 2, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Myoko region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 31cm
Snowfall at base this season 864cm
Posted on Wednesday 24th January 2018 This is an archived report. The latest Myoko Now report can be found here.
Not as much snow as the forecasts predicted, but not as strong winds, either.
A few moments of southwest wind blasts, especially right after all the lifts closed down (my office windows suddenly went all white). But it was a good snow, and steady applications of 30cm or so is much more welcome than a dump of 60 and then the sun/snow again. Nice and cold, too. But it is still snowing; Niigata prefecture is predicting 25cm up to 4pm.
The Akakan Hotel No. 2 is down as of midday. Probably won’t last long, they say (and that’s usually the case). Suginohara’s No. 3 also closed yesterday and today becausee of wind. The wind was really strong up high yesterday, too.
About the volcanic eruption at Kusatsu-Shirane-san in Gunma Prefecture on 23rd January 2018
As you may have heard, yesterday morning there was a limited volcanic eruption followed by an avalanche in western Gunma Prefecture, close to the border with northern Nagano Prefecture. The eruption at Motoshirane happened close to the more famous Kusatsu-Shirane-san - and also the slopes of the Kusatsu Kokusai ski resort. Around 80 skiers were evacuated to an area near the upper area of Kusatsu-Shirane with some trapped in the gondola and on lifts for a while.
Very sadly, as a result of this event there was one fatality and a number of injuries, apparently due to flying rocks and the avalanche. As far as we can tell there have been no further eruptions since yesterday morning.
Our thoughts are with everyone involved and caught up in this.
This incident made the international news with some people visiting Japan asking if their ski resort will be safe, and so we thought we would add this information to our daily reports this morning.
The only ski resort affected by this event is Kusatsu Kokusai in Gunma Prefecture.
It is currently unclear how this will affect the top area of the resort, but it seems that the lower slopes of Kusatsu Kokusai will remain open today – those slopes are quite a distance from the affected area. (And perhaps this is a good example of how Japanese people are used to living with the threat of earthquakes and volcanos!)
The ski resorts in Shiga Kogen (Nagano) and Manza Onsen (Gunma) are the other closest ski resorts, but they are outside of the 2km restricted area -- and are unaffected.
And of course, ski resorts that are further away than that are also totally unaffected.
The central part of Kusatsu town itself is about 7km away from the volcano and so also unaffected.
We hope this information helps.
Myoko Now 2017-2018 season |
Data as of Wednesday 24th January 2018 Total snowfall at base so far 864cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 31 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 81cm (27th December) November 2017 snowfall 61cm reported on 3 days December 2017 snowfall 468cm reported on 15 days January 2018 snowfall 335cm reported on 13 days |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Myoko. 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.