Yuzawa Now: Sunday 12th May 2024
- May 12, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 28, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this seas 713cm
Posted on Sunday 12th May 2024 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
Today is the last day of the ski season in Yuzawa, with Kagura closing at the end of today. The day starts cloudy and there is a southerly wind. Kagura wanted to continue until 19th May, but the snow situation wouldn’t allow that. Still, after a season of generally less snow than usual, getting to the second week of May seems like a very good showing.
The fresh snow fun of the peak ski season seems so long ago now. After all, most ski areas in the Yuzawa region closed at the end of March, so we are now over six weeks later.
In terms of snowfall, 2023-2024 was a weird season. You can usually rely on February to bring very good and consistent snowfall, but this year, like many other regions, we sometimes struggled with snowfall. We could only clock up 79cm in these Yuzawa Now reports, much less than expected. Towards the end of February, it looked like many ski areas might not make it past early March. But then, we got some relief in unexpectedly large amounts of snowfall, 177cm, in March. That snow was a big help, letting most ski areas close as initially planned. (Lots of data here).
In some ways, February felt like March, and March felt like February.
Yuzawa has had a busy winter, with many overseas visitors enjoying themselves. While people have come from all over the world, visitors from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore have been noticeable.
People and businesses involved in tourism are now busy in green/summer mode. While it is much less focused than the winter season, there's still a lot going on across the region.
Some summer skiing is offered on artificial mats at GALA Yuzawa and Kagura (Mitsumata). Both are scheduled to start from 13th July. Operations are usually mostly weekends only, not daily, so please check with the ski areas for details and latest information.
The Fuji Rock Festival '24 will take place at Naeba Ski Area from 26th to 29th July. This year's headliner acts are Sza, Kraftwerk, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, with tons more Japanese and overseas artists lined up to perform.
Anyway, that's it from Yuzawa Now for now. I hope you enjoyed our reporting during the 2023-2024 season - and Yuzawa if you actually visited!
SnowJapan is updated throughout the year, but we'll be back with our weather and snow reporting from November. Let us hope that we can enjoy heavy and consistent snowfall during the 2024-2025 season.
See you then!
Yuzawa Now 2023-2024 season |
Data as of Sunday 12th May 2024 Total snowfall at base so far 713cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 54 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 55cm (23rd December) November 2023 snowfall 14cm reported on 2 days December 2023 snowfall 137cm reported on 9 days January 2024 snowfall 306cm reported on 15 days February 2024 snowfall 79cm reported on 12 days March 2024 snowfall 177cm reported on 16 days April 2024 snowfall 0cm May 2024 snowfall 0cm |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Yuzawa. 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.