Niseko Now: Sunday 3rd February 2013
- Feb 3, 2013
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 16, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 7cm
Snowfall at base this season 986cm
Weather overview Cloud, light snow
Wind
Strong
Temperature -7C base / -14C top
Visibility Generally poor
Posted at 9:10am on Sunday 3rd February 2013 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
I'm glad to report that we are back to much more Niseko-like colder temperatures this morning.
It's a nice and cold -7C early on. Annupuri is recording a temperature of -16C up at the top of the resort. That's more like it!
The rain continued in the morning yesterday but turned into snow early afternoon - somewhat earlier than we were expecting, but a good thing. This morning there is between 5cm and 10cm of fresh snow in the village area, so hopefully a bit more than that on the mountain. With the winds blowing it about, it's going to be less and more than that in places. It's not a thick layer of new snow and considering it is on top of the conditions we had up until the new snow fell, real care needed today. Looks might deceive! Under that thin layer of fresh are some icy conditions so keep it in mind.
I didn't mention the wind yet. Well, yes it is windy out there and it's affecting what is open this morning.
It looks like all of the Niseko Annupuri resort area is closed this morning as they report winds between 19m/s and 20m/s.
At Niseko Village, the lower The Banzai Chair, Morino Chair and Community Chair lifts are operating.
At Niseko Grand Hirafu it is the lower half of the mountain open with the Ace Family, Ace Number 1, Ace Number 2 Center four, Holiday Number 1 Pair and Swinging Monkey lifts operating now as normal. The King Number 2 lift and Hirafu Gondola are operating at reduced speed. The King Number 2 should be opening at 10am.
Someone asked us about the half pipe being closed at Niseko Grand Hirafu. It seems that the maintenance machine has a problem and so that is the reason for this. Hopefully they can get that sorted quick.
Temperatures should remain about where they should be over the coming week with snow clouds never far away. In particular, the forecast is looking really good for a great delivery of snow around the end of the week. So hopefully we are in for a good week.
Anyone feel the earthquake late last night? A magnitude 6.4 quake rattled lots of Hokkaido and large parts of northern Japan around 11:15pm last night. It registered a 'shindo 2' on the Japanese seismic intensity scale here in Niseko and Kutchan. The epicenter was to the east of Sapporo near the coast by Tokachi, so quite a way from Niseko but still there was a bit of a shudder here. A reminder.
Avalanche Information
Niseko base 6am: -9C, 5cm of broken particle snow. Moiwa 800m: W15m/s, stormy and bad visibility, -15C and notable snowdrift development. Annupuri peak: NW30.8m/s, -18C. Coastal data: WNW21m/s, 3.1m waves and 1013hPa.
Furious snowstorm due to strong winter weather pattern is generating drastic development of snowdrifts in leeward slopes above 800m. According to the snowfall transition, weather data and observations, the newly formed snowdrifts are extremely unstable and can collapse/slide with the slightest stimulation. The developments of slabs aren't uniform and their consistency are also dependent on altitude and slope orientation. 50cm surface slab avalanches are likely to occur in slopes with heavy snowdrifts around 700-900m, with crust surface (Feb 2nd layer) underneath, namely Osawa (Annupuri bowl) and backside Higashione (Jackson).
All gates will be closed. Even if the lift is operating, out of bounds area should not be entered. A closed gate is a message telling all area beyond the resort boundary should not be touched. Ignoring this message and accessing those areas, whether crossing the boundary ropes or not, will result in many people following those tracks and unnecessarily increase the chances of accidents to happen. We strongly demand every resort user to respect the Niseko Rules. The snow will turn better soon. Better take it easy today.
Niseko Now 2012-2013 season |
Data as of Sunday 3rd February 2013 Total snowfall at base so far 986cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 65 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 45cm (27th January) November 2012 snowfall 118cm reported on 11 days December 2012 snowfall 418cm reported on 27 days January 2013 snowfall 443cm reported on 26 days February 2013 snowfall 7cm 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.