Niseko Now: Tuesday 5th February 2013
- Feb 5, 2013
- 3 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 15cm
Snowfall at base this season 1006cm
Weather overview Cloud, light snow
Wind
Strong
Temperature -7C base / -14C top
Visibility Poor
Posted at 8:55am on Tuesday 5th February 2013 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
Around 15cm of new snowfall this morning in the village. Nice and cold with a temperature of -7C at the moment.
Almost reluctant to mention it but... it's very windy. Strong winds during the night last night and continued strong winds now this morning. The Niseko Village resort is reporting a NW wind speed of up to 26m/s as of 8:30am. As you might imagine, it's affecting the resort operatings on the mountain.
Looks like at Niseko Annupuri just the Jumbo Number 1 lift operating with the Jumbo Number 2 to start moving at 9am.
At Niseko Village, the Banzai Chair, Morino Chair and Community Chair lifts are operating.
Niseko Grand Hirafu have the Ace Family and Holiday Number 1 Pair lifts operating, with the Hirafu Gondola moving at reduced speed. The Ace Number 1 and King Number 1 lifts will open at 9am and 10am respectively. Unfortunately it looks like all three lifts over at Hanazono are affected by the winds and not moving.
It's snowing at the moment still and the wind is really blowing it around. This means of course that there will again be places where there's pretty deep new snow and others with more icy conditions. So very likely variable conditions out on the slopes today. Take care.
Tomorrow should be calmer but some potentially very special conditions are forecast for Thursday and Friday, possibly into Saturday, with some heavy snowfall due. Fingers crossed the wind doesn't mess us about at the same time!
Avalanche Information
Niseko base 6am: -9C, 15cm of broken particle snow and notable development of snowdrifts. Moiwa 800m: NW15m/s, -15C, snowy with strong wind, bad visibility and newly formed snowdrifts are unstable. Annupuri peak: NW27.9m/s, -17.6C. Coastal data: NW20m/s, 3.2m and 1013hPa.
Northwesterly storm is covering the Niseko area. According to all data, snowfall transition and observations, the avalanche risk is very high in leeward steep slopes, knolls and cornice slopes of all Niseko range. The Feb 4th layer and the newly formed slabs on top are very unstable, and although the slab's thickness differ from locations, surface slab slides of up to 60cm thickness are likely to occur in 800m leeward slopes.
Most avalanche related accidents happen during or just after storms. The weather is forecasted to calm down, however hazards remain high for a while. All gates above 800m will be closed during the morning. Please follow the ski patrol's instructions. Do not duck ropes to access the out of bounds areas. The snow in the trees is little heavy but has been reset and in good condition. Beware of falling into cracks, hitting trees and frostbites. Have a nice & safe day.
Niseko Now 2012-2013 season |
Data as of Tuesday 5th February 2013 Total snowfall at base so far 1006cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 67 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 27cm reported on 3 days |
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.