Niseko Now: Thursday 3rd December 2015
- Dec 3, 2015
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 2, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 75cm
Posted on Thursday 3rd December 2015 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
I think today will be the first time that I have to talk about wind.
Ah yes, wind.
It's that one thing that manages to annoy me most about Niseko, it often messing about with lift operations and what is open on the mountain. And today is one of those days - well, this morning anyway. Strong winds are with us and stopping some lifts from opening at the start of the day. Niseko Grand Hirafu resort at 8am was reporting wind speeds of 20-25m/s at the top of the Center Four lift. They will of course try to get going if the conditions allow, but strong winds are expected for the day today. As of 8:30am, it looks like the two lifts at Niseko Village are actually going to be opening as planned but the planned lifts at Niseko Annupuri as well as Niseko Grand Hirafu are on hold.
This morning we also have warmer conditions with rain falling as well. Temperatures may rise to around 10 degrees in town today which is of course too warm. All in all, it's not really a particularly nice day to get up on the mountain even if the winds allowed the lifts to move.
It is one of those days when 'other things' are a good choice. My choice is a soak in the onsen hot springs...
OK now we have all that lot out of the way, things are looking much better from later on today.
Temperatures are set to drop and hopefully by the end of the day it will be snowing. And there's a good chance that the snowfall will continue through tomorrow and over the weekend and into early next week. If this comes off then by the end of the weekend things should be looking very different here.
So I'm looking forward to bringing you that news over the coming few days.
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Resort specific news as of 8:30am - subject to change during the day
Niseko Grand Hirafu:
Lifts planned to be running - Ace Number 2 Quad Center Four (transport), Ace Number 3
Early morning strong winds and poor visibility preventing them from opening as planned
Niseko Village:
Lifts planned to be operating - Community Chair and Banzai Chair.
Niseko Annupuri:
Lifts planned to be operating - Annupuri Gondola (transport) and Jumbo Number 3 lift
Early morning strong winds and poor visibility preventing them from opening as planned
Niseko HANAZONO Resort:
The Hanazono area plans to open from Saturday 5th December
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'Nighta' should be starting on Saturday 12th December 2015
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Official resort snow depths:
Grand Hirafu / Hanazono:
Top - 105cm
Base - 35cm
Niseko Village:
Top - 50cm
Base - 20cm
Niseko Annupuri:
Top - 50cm
Base - 20cm
Niseko Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Thursday 3rd December 2015 Total snowfall at base so far 75cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 5 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 20cm (30th November) November 2015 snowfall 61cm reported on 4 days December 2015 snowfall 14cm reported on 1 day |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Kutchan/Niseko. 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.