Nozawa Now: Wednesday 6th May 2026
- May 6
- 4 min read
Updated: May 6
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 733cm
Posted on Wednesday 6th May 2026 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Nozawa.
It is a fine and sunny Wednesday morning with some cloud hanging around. It's also the last day of the Golden Week holidays and the last day of the official ski season here in Nozawa Onsen.
Purely in terms of observed snowfall at base, 2025-2026 probably comes in at just below average, but I don't think that tells the whole story.
Here's how much I reported in these reports from base:
November 2025: 15cm
December 2025: 134cm
January 2026: 438cm
February 2026: 126cm
March 2026: 20cm
Season total: 733cm (last year, the total was 1058cm)
Important: more snow fell higher up, and I mention the upper areas' snowfall numbers (as reported by the ski area) in each report. As other reporters on here are saying, always look beyond the headline numbers.
About 60% of the total snowfall came in January, making it easily the most exciting month of the season and the recipient of my top 5 'best days of the season' awards. I think I'm right in saying that January being the most snowy month applies to many - most? - regions of Japan. It was certainly the case in this region.
Plenty of great days to enjoy in other months, too, of course, but January was clearly the peak.
The other countrywide trend we couldn't escape was the slowdown in snowfall in the second half of the season, with very little snow at all from the last week of February.
Luckily, temperatures generally remained on the lower side for much of March and into April, and that definitely helped the upper areas retain enough snow to keep open until today.
There's no getting around the fact that the 'spring season' has felt especially long this year. It is a bit concerning. But! A bit of perspective - only last season we enjoyed an impressive 424cm in February 2024 and a respectable 101cm in March 2025. That was really good.
Perhaps we can have some of that next season.
Naski, everyone's favourite bright-green skiing vegetable mascot, made many appearances throughout the season and is as gnarly as ever. There's no holding back Naski. A fine ambassador for Nozawa Onsen.
I'm not a fan of hot, humid summers, but perhaps the heat we endure from June through September helps us anticipate and appreciate our lovely snowy winters even more than we would if we didn't have them.
I plan to be back in November in time for the run-up to the 2026-2027 winter season.
Thanks for reading, and see you then!
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A message from SnowJapan
This message is being published on each of our daily report pages and is not specific to Nozawa
The season is now over for all but a few ski areas, and the last of our daily reporting for 2025-2026 has been posted. I hope that our independent reporting has once again helped many people this past ski season. With our large and wide-reaching readership from every part of the world, we feel a real sense of responsibility for the information we publish.
A sincere thank you to the wonderful reporters who contribute to our daily reporting.
It has been another long season with more unique stories from around the country. A general Japan season wrap-up seems inappropriate, given the vast differences across the country's many mountainous regions. Still, I think it's fair to say that in most regions, 2025-2026 was not a top-tier classic for Japan in terms of snowfall.
But... that is comparing Japan with Japan – and, as we all know, that is a very high bar!
All being well, later this year, a from-the-ground-up new version of SnowJapan will replace the current site (which has been online since February 2022).
Work started on the new project over a year ago. I don't want to reveal details just yet, as there is still a lot of work to do and some things may change. The main goal of this renewal is to simplify and refine the site, keep things 'light', with a focus on improving core content and usability. It's a lot of work, but with all the foundations now largely in place, it is exciting to start seeing it all come together. Hopefully, the end result will work out as imagined.
It might be a shock to the system when the changeover happens, but not to worry - the basic concept and values that have guided SnowJapan since 1999 are still very much firmly in place.
The new site is expected to be ready by November 2026, and more information will be shared in late summer.
Information on the ski area:
Nozawa Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Wednesday 6th May 2026 Total snowfall at base 733cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 52 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 76cm (on 25th January) November 2025 snowfall 15cm reported on 1 day December 2025 snowfall 134cm reported on 11 days January 2026 snowfall 438cm reported on 22 days February 2026 snowfall 126cm reported on 12 days March 2026 snowfall 20cm reported on 6 days April 2026 snowfall 0cm May 2026 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.