Nozawa Now: Sunday 4th January 2026
- Jan 4
- 2 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 3cm
Snowfall at base this season 206cm
Posted on Sunday 4th January 2026 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.
Morning from Nozawa.
The sun is out this morning but we should be back to snow by tonight. Even now it seems to be more cloudy than it was a short while ago...
The ski area has reported over 20cm of fresh snow in the top areas since yesterday morning, with 5cm of that overnight. But that total number feels surprising (if not welcome). Anyway, there's just several down below.
Naski fans around the world are shaken at the apparent lack of the Naski inflatable things on the Hikage base this season, so far at least. There's a bright green inflatable thing in the place (image below), just not the bit that looks like Naski (everyone's favourite bright green skiing vegetable mascot). I don't know what has happened there. Bring back Naski!
Calling all Skyline fans!
It looks like the Skyline course is going to be opening very soon. The official site says it will open (along with Grand Prix, Jumping and Nagasaka) after checks for safety. This morning perhaps?
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Fresh snowfall since yesterday morning (reported by the ski area):
Yamabiko: 22cm
Uenotaira: 17cm
Hikage: 5cm
Nagasaka: 5cm
Karasawa: 3cm
Official snow depth numbers (reported by the ski area):
Yamabiko: 150cm
Uenotaira: 120cm
Hikage: 70cm
Nagasaka: 60cm
Karasawa: 55cm
Scheduled lift operations:
All operating
Courses that are not yet available:
Skyline
Kamoshika
Jumping
Grand Prix
Nagasaka
Mukobayashi
Hachiman
Information on the ski area:
Nozawa Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Sunday 4th January 2026 Total snowfall at base 206cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 16 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 50cm (on 27th December) November 2025 snowfall 15cm reported on 1 day December 2025 snowfall 134cm reported on 11 days January 2026 snowfall 57cm reported on 4 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.