Yuzawa Now: Friday 15th January 2016
- Jan 15, 2016
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 3cm
Snowfall at base this season 126cm
Posted on Friday 15th January 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
A bit of snowfall to report this morning though it's just small numbers again, I'm afraid. This morning Kagura are reporting 0-2 cm of fresh snow and Maiko are reporting 5cm; and it looks like Naeba are reporting 3cm.
I seem to have said this so many times this season but that is less snow than we were expecting again (the local Niigata local forecast told us to expect 10cm), with just 3cm on the ground this morning around town. Quite why those snow clouds are not coming that bit further south to our lovely little area is quite the puzzle.
And I definitely know that I have reported this before only for us to be disappointed, but early next week is really - REALLY! - looking good for some decent snowfall. I'm not going to say anything else about that other than to just keep your eye on the forecast and let's see where it goes. Fingers crossed.
For now though this morning resorts will have received a thin layer of snow on top of what they had with no major changes expected.
Lots of cloud around this morning but it is quite bright and as we approach 8am there's a bit of blue sky to be seen to. It's thankfully keeping fairly cold without the proper warm-up thing that we had going on a while back.
Weather for the weekend looks set to be... well, it's again really difficult to read and different forecasts tell different stories. Cloud and light snow maybe tomorrow morning, though quite a few days when we have had that forecast have ended up being clear and sunny, so who knows!
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A few people have asked why we keep on mentioning the amount of fresh snow at Kagura and Maiko Snow Resort in particular and not other resorts. A good question and there's a really simple answer - they are the ones that report such numbers. Most other resorts just stick to their 'snow depth' which often doesn't change and don't mention how much snow has fallen over the last 24 hours. Seems to me that the fresh snow number is the most important number there is. It's the number I want to know each morning and odd that many resorts don't mention it. You might think that it is just this season because there's not as much snowfall, but it's actually something that has always been the case. It's the fresh snow we want to know about every day, right? So that is why those resorts are mentioned.
And they are actually pretty good ones to report location wise as Kagura is the highest resort in Yuzawa town and Maiko is nicely positioned right on the border of Yuzawa and Minamiuonuma (and physically very close to Iwappara).
I can only report on the amount of snow that has fallen at base in town here. Unfortunately I am not able to up to the top of resorts each morning with a measuring stick!
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Resort official snow depths (Friday 15th January 2016) and any specific news:
All resorts in the area are now generally open for the season, though please note that some areas and courses are not yet open. Generally steeper slopes that need more snow are still closed and some lower slopes are patchy.
Resorts in Yuzawa:
GALA Yuzawa
110cm
Ishiuchi Maruyama
80cm
Iwappara
40cm
Joetsu Kokusai
70cm
Kagura
90cm (Mitsumata)
120cm (Tashiro)
150cm (Kagura)
Kandatsu Kogen
80-105cm
Maiko Snow Resort
90cm (upper)
20cm (lower)
Muikamachi Hakkaisan
80cm
Naeba
70cm
NASPA Ski Garden
65cm
Yuzawa Kogen
90cm
Yuzawa Nakazato
60cm
Yuzawa Park
30cm
Yuzawa Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Friday 15th January 2016 Total snowfall at base so far 126cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 14 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 28cm (28th December) November 2015 snowfall 0cm December 2015 snowfall 92cm reported on 7 days January 2016 snowfall 34cm reported on 7 days |
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.