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Nozawa Now: Tuesday 15th December 2020

  • Dec 15, 2020
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano


New snowfall at base 17cm
Snowfall at base this season 30cm

Posted on Tuesday 15th December 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.


Lots of lovely snowy scenes this morning in Nozawa as the snow continues.


The resort was reporting 15-20cm of snowfall on the upper slopes during the day by yesterday afternoon and another 20cm this morning. So that's 35-40cm of fresh snow on the upper areas of the mountain since yesterday.


Looks like it is set in as well, with snow on the forecast through into next week.


Excellent. It already just feels very different from last year. (A good thing!)


No further lifts or courses appear to be open just yet but I would imagine some opening up pretty soon. The resort is probably in one of those 'coping' modes right now as it deals with all the incoming snow.


Which is, of course, a great problem to have.


Fresh snowfall recorded by the resort (since yesterday morning):

- Yamabiko (1407m): 40cm

- Uenotaira (1230m): 35cm

- Hikage (660m): -cm (not reporting yet)

- Nagasaka (615m): -cm (not reporting yet)

- Karasawa (563m): -cm (not reporting yet)


Official snow depth numbers (reported by the ski area):


- Yamabiko (1407m): 50cm

- Uenotaira (1230m): 40cm

- Hikage (660m): -cm

- Nagasaka (615m): -cm

- Karasawa (563m): -cm


Planned operating lifts:


- Nagasaka Gondola (8:30am - 5:30pm; last one down at 4pm)

- Yamabiko Four quad lift (8:45am - 3:30pm)

- Yamabiko Number 2 Four quad lift (8:40am - 3:40pm)

- Uenotaira Four quad lift (8:50am - 3:40pm)


Courses currently open:


- Yamabiko C Course (850m)

- Yamabiko D Course (1250m)

- Uenotaira Course (2000m)



Nozawa Now 2020-2021 season

Data as of Tuesday 15th December 2020 Total snowfall at base 30cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 2 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 17cm (15th December) November 2020 snowfall 0cm December 2020 snowfall 30cm reported on 2 days




All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Nozawa Onsen. 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.


SnowJapan is an entirely independent operation. Our daily reports are not posted on behalf of ski areas or any other business or organisation. Since first going online in 1999, the integrity of this website has always been our top priority, and it is something we are not prepared to compromise. All content is carefully created and written by humans who share a passion for the subject and what SnowJapan stands for.



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