Nozawa Now: Friday 29th April 2016
- Apr 29, 2016
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 472cm
Posted on Friday 19th April 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.
That's it for this season then.
Today is the last day of the season for Nozawa Onsen snow resort and the season has ended with quite cold, wet and foggy conditions.
On Tuesday 3rd, Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th of May, the Nagasaka Gondola will be operating, and you can hop on it for free as well. There'll be no snow to ski or board on at the top, but it sounds like there will be a few small events and the Resthouse Yamabiko will also be open for business. If the weather is nice, always a good place to be.
No doubt soon after that things will start heating up as we head into summer, and before you know it thoughts will turn to next winter.
But how about this past winter?
2015/2016 winter season was definitely a relatively poor season for most snow regions of Japan, including the northern region of Nagano.
Please note that I said a relatively poor season. I know lots of people who visited from overseas and were able to have a blast and really loved their time here in Nozawa. While the season started later than planned and ended sooner than planned, there was no unseasonal closing down of lifts and courses necessary etc. It's just that for those of us who know what a 'normal' Nozawa season offers... well, we are probably very spoilt!
The positive to take from it is that it was abnormal, so hopefully we can get back to something more like normal next winter season.
A 'normal' season here in Nozawa sees us getting very large amounts of regular, consistent snowfall. 30cm and more snowfall overnight in the village is a fairly regular thing in a normal season. During the 2015/2016 season we didn't get much of that at all, and unusually we were often looking at the skies and the forecasts and wondering when the next snow might fall. In my Nozawa Now reports for the season, it is telling that I observed less than half the amount of snowfall down here in the village compared with the previous season (472cm compared with 1044cm in 2014/2015). That's a big difference.
If you are reading this report and going about researching Nozawa - and indeed the other regions covered in the SnowJapan daily Now reports - I strongly recommend that you take a good look through the archive reports from previous seasons and not just this most recent season. That way you will get a good idea of how things have been at certain points over a number of years. There are archived reports available going way back to 2002, so you'll need a fair bit of time to get through them!
Anyway, that is it from me and the Nozawa Now reports for this season.
Remember, Nozawa is a fine place to be through the year so perhaps some of you will be visiting before next winter season.
Nozawa Onsen 6 day weather forecast
(Forecast updated throughout the year)
I'll be back with Nozawa Now reports in late autumn in the run up to next season, which will probably be due to start in late November 2016. You might see a few changes to the reports as well, though we'll bring you more news on that kind of thing nearer the time. The guys have been busy for over 3 months now working on new developments for the site.
Fingers crossed 2016/2017 will be a good one and we be able to enjoy lots of the Nozawa-rashii (-like) qualities that we love so much.
Thanks for reading and see you later in the year. I hope that you have a good May to November wherever in the world you might be.
Nozawa Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Friday 29th April 2016 Total snowfall at base 472cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 50 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 40cm (18th February) November 2015 snowfall 3cm reported on 1 day December 2015 snowfall 100cm reported on 9 days January 2016 snowfall 132cm reported on 21 days February 2016 snowfall 162cm reported on 12 days March 2016 snowfall 75cm reported on 7 days April 2016 snowfall 0cm |
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.