Yuzawa Now: Saturday 18th April 2026
- Apr 18
- 3 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this seas 917cm
Posted on Saturday 18th April 2026 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Yuzawa.
Largely clear blue sky and sunshine this morning, with just a little cloud in places. It got as warm as 24C in town yesterday and while it might not be quite as high as that, it will probably warm up to over 20C again today. More sun and warmth is forecast for tomorrow too.
From this morning, the only skiing and snowboarding available in the Yuzawa region is at Kagura ski area.
GALA Yuzawa ski area is open from this morning - for 'snow activities' (sledding, moon bikes, snow cart tour, snow buggy panoramic tour) and sightseeing. The gondola and one quad lift are operating, but skiing and snowboarding is no longer possible. Some other ski areas will be offering some spring-type activities as Golden Week approaches, but at the moment I believe it is only GALA that is open. Anyway, those things are all another topic and not something we will dwell on in these reports.
From now on, Yuzawa Now reports will be posted several times a week until the end of the season at Kagura. We'll let you know when there there are any changes of note.
A quick announcement was posted a few days ago (here), regarding current work on a new version of SnowJapan that is due to appear before next season. Work started on the project about a year ago. That seems such a long time ago now. There's still a lot of work left, but I'm excited to see all the work come together over the coming months. Hopefully, without any unforeseen issues/problems! There's some fairly major changes coming...
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Kagura:
Official snow depth:
Top: 220cm
Base: 120cm
Notes:
12 of 17 lifts remain open.
Both the Mitsumata Ropeway and Tashiro Ropeway bases are open.
The Mitsumata Area course is used as a connection to get to the Kagura Area.
26 of 30 ski runs are still available, according to the official website this morning.
The Tashiro Area (and Tashiro Ropeway) plans to be open until 7th May.
The Kagura Area (via Mitsumata Ropeway) plans to be open until Sunday 17th May.
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All other ski areas in the Yuzawa and Minamiuonuma region have now closed for skiing and snowboarding.
GALA Yuzawa remains open until 6th May, but only for sightseeing and some snow-related activities.
Yuzawa Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Saturday 18th April 2026 Total snowfall at base so far 917cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 52 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 68cm (on 25th January) November 2025 snowfall 12cm reported on 1 day December 2025 snowfall 144cm reported on 9 days January 2026 snowfall 595cm reported on 23 days February 2026 snowfall 132cm reported on 13 days March 2026 snowfall 34cm reported on 6 days April 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 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.