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Nozawa Now: Friday 8th January 2016

  • Jan 8, 2016
  • 2 min read

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


New snowfall at base 5cm
Snowfall at base this season 126cm

Posted on Friday 8th January 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.


Hello and good morning from Nozawa.


Perhaps a little unexpected but it's a bright and sunny morning - up top anyway! There's a sea of cloud hovering low down this morning which is making things a bit more gloomy on lower areas but I would expect those clouds to disappear this morning and the sun to shine on base as well.


Yesterday of course we enjoyed some fresh snowfall. Not a huge amount and it never really got sustained 'full on' snowfall, but there is a new layer (10cm on Yamabiko) which is fingers crossed going to be supplemented tonight with some decent snowfall expected as we enter the weekend. Sunday-Monday is also still looking very promising. Enough of the promise, results please!


As Monday is a national holiday in Japan, this coming weekend is traditionally one of the more popular weekends of the season. The resort will be starting their lifts 30 minutes earlier than usual tomorrow, Sunday and on Monday as well. So the Gondolas will start spinning from 8:10am and the base lifts from 8am.


Official snow depths:


Yamabiko: 100cm

Uenotaira: 95cm

Hikage: 20cm

Nagasaka: 20cm

Karasawa: 15cm


New snowfall as reported by the resort since yesterday:


Yamabiko: 10cm

Uenotaira: 12cm

Hikage: 5cm

Nagasaka: 5cm

Karasawa: 5cm


All lifts now planned to be operating except:


- Mizunashi triple

- Challenge pair

- Utopia pair

- Kandahar pair

- Hikage Number 2 pair B

- Karasawa pair


The following courses are not currently open:


- Skyline

- Paradise connection

- Mizunashi

- Schneider

- Utopia

- Challenge

- Challenge 39

- Hikage no kabe

- Kurokura

- Ushikubi

- Grand Prix

- Jumping

- Hachiman

- Mukoubayashi

- Kandahar West

- Kandahar East

- Kamoshika

- Tanuki

- Usagi

- Karasawa



Nozawa Now 2015-2016 season

Data as of Friday 8th January 2016 Total snowfall at base 126cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 13 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 32cm (29th December) November 2015 snowfall 3cm reported on 1 day December 2015 snowfall 100cm reported on 9 days January 2016 snowfall 23cm 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 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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