Yuzawa Now: Thursday 18th December 2014
- Dec 18, 2014
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 85cm
Snowfall at base this season 410cm
Posted on Thursday 18th December 2014 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
This storm that is over Japan at the moment is still at the top of the national news.
Last night they were warning that parts of Niigata were up for 120cm of more snowfall before Thursday evening. I think a lot of people went to sleep worried about what might await them but for this region anyway there wasn't quite as much expected overnight.
Let's rewind back to yesterday. It was pretty wild. After the snow I reported yesterday morning, in the early afternoon I took a fresh 40cm off the top of my car. Then 20cm more in the evening. And there's another 15cm on there this morning. So that's 85cm since my last report. I might even be under-reporting there. It was moderately windy at times yesterday, sometimes strong.
So it's another of those days when there's just a ridiculous amount of snow around. It's hard to believe that we are still only on 18th December and only really had 3 lots of snow.
Quite a few ski resorts around Yuzawa and Minamiuonuma plan on being open from tomorrow and then more again on Saturday (details below). They won't have lack of snow problems to deal with, that's for sure. If anything, the problem might be digging out the ski lifts! A good problem to have though as sometimes around this time of the year and even beyond Christmas there's a worry about snow.
Not this year!
Kagura reports 80cm of fresh snowfall and the official snow depth goes up from 200cm to.... er, 200cm. (How does that work then?! I know the amount that falls doesn't always translate into the same amount added due to compacting and all that, but still...!)
Strong winds up there is affecting Kagura with only the Mitsumata Ropeway, Mitsumata Number 1 Quad and Mitsumata Number 2 Romance pair lifts operating. So no main Kagura area and no Tashiro today.
Naeba report 35-50cm and they are too limited to lower areas due to wind.
Here in town it's not actually snowing at the moment, and even looks like it might clear up with visibility getting better - can see the mountains - but the snow is due through the day and I imagine this is just a temporary break, it'll probably be snowing again just after I post this. The forecast for the day is more heavy snow and moderate to strong winds, with the snowfall easing off overnight by early tomorrow morning. Some forecasts are saying we might get to see clearer skies and the sun shining down tomorrow. Would be nice.
As locals deal with all of this snow - 'enough is enough' seems to be the local consensus for now - this weekend should be great. With much more suddenly opening up in some respects it feels like this coming weekend is the first main weekend of the season proper after a kind of 'pre-season'
Hope you can get here to enjoy it. Snow should be superb.
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Resorts currently open:
Kagura - limited to just Mitsumata today due to wind
Naeba - part open
Iwappara - part open, 2 central area lifts operating
Joetsu Kokusai - part open, 5 lifts operating
Maiko Snow Resort - part open, top Okusoeji area, Gondola and 2 Okusoeji lifts operating
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Official snow depths:
Kagura:
200cm
Naeba:
100cm
Iwappara:
190cm
Maiko Snow Resort:
200cm
Joetsu Kokusai:
180cm
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Planned opening dates for resorts in Yuzawa Town and Minamiuonuma City (by date):
Friday 19th December:
Ishiuchi Maruyama
Muikamachi Ski Resort
Yuzawa Nakazato
Yuzawa Kogen
Yuzawa Park
Saturday 20th December:
Chateau Shiozawa
GALA Yuzawa
Ipponsugi
Kandatsu Kogen
Ludens Yuzawa
Nakazato Snow Wood
Muimamachi Hakkaisan
NASPA Ski Garden
Yuzawa Kogen (Nunoba area)
Tuesday 23rd December:
Itsukamachi
Thursday 25th December:
Hakkaisanroku
Saturday 27th December:
Ishiuchi Hanaoka
Late December
Mt Granview
Yuzawa Now 2014-2015 season |
Data as of Thursday 18th December 2014 Total snowfall at base so far 410cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 9 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 100cm (15th December) November 2014 snowfall 0cm December 2014 snowfall 410cm reported on 9 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.