Nozawa Now: Friday 9th January 2026
- Jan 9
- 2 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 42cm
Snowfall at base this season 280cm
Posted on Friday 9th January 2026 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Nozawa.
The snowfall numbers from the ski area below are from yesterday afternoon. Apologies that I was not able to check any published numbers during the daytime.
We've had good snowfall since yesterday. Good heavy snowfall at times.
This morning we have cloud around the mountain but there's some blue sky away from it and forecasts tell us to expect some clearer conditions as the day progresses.
The Japan Meteorological Agency measuring point, close to Karasawa, has 35cm of fresh snowfall over the last 24 hours. My own measurement since early yesterday morning is 42cm.
Tomorrow is the start of a long weekend as Monday is a national holiday. Sun is forecast from the start so it should be a good day - and popular, too. Expect a lot of people!
We should get back to snow falling from the skies on Sunday and, again, perhaps heavy at times. I like the sound of that.
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Fresh snowfall since yesterday afternoon (reported by the ski area):
Yamabiko: 28cm
Uenotaira: 25cm
Hikage: 15cm
Nagasaka: 28cm
Karasawa: 10cm
Official snow depth numbers (reported by the ski area):
Yamabiko: 190cm
Uenotaira: 155cm
Hikage: 110cm
Nagasaka: 100cm
Karasawa: 85cm
Scheduled lift operations:
All operating except Challenge pair and Utopia pair (usually closed on weekdays)
Courses that are not available:
Mukobayashi
Hachiman
Information on the ski area:
Nozawa Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Friday 9th January 2026 Total snowfall at base 280cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 20 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 131cm reported on 8 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.