Yuzawa Now: Wednesday 18th March 2026
- Mar 18
- 3 min read
Updated: 10 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 Wednesday 18th March 2026 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
The sun is out and we have blue skies again, along with some mostly thin cloud. If forecasts are correct the cloud is set to increase during the morning and overnight tonight we will get rain (or snow in higher elevations).
It might be quite wind out there.
Friday is a national holiday in Japan and so we have an upcoming 3-day weekend.
Where do we stand?
Ski areas in Yuzawa and the big ones in Minamiuonuma remain open, but some ground is increasingly showing up on some lower town level runs, to varying degrees, and some runs are no longer available. Still, it is pleasing that they have all lasted this long, considering the weather we were having a month ago. A generally cold March has helped greatly.
Generally, the higher up you go, the better the snow and the more complete snow cover remains. In fact, snow cover remains good and there is still a whole lot of fun to be had.
Clear weather is forecast once we get into Saturday.
I'm going to re-post this as the report was late yesterday and some might not have seen it...
Yuzawa Town has released some interesting data. Below is the number of visitors to all ski areas in Yuzawa Town during the 2025-2026 season, up until the end of February 2026. The number in brackets is the change compared with the previous 2024-2025 season at the same point (end of February).
Naeba: 278,420 (+4.4%)
Iwappara: 215,500 (-6.3%)
GALA Yuzawa: 213,500 (+8.3%)
Kandatsu Snow Resort: 161,810 (+17.5%)
Kagura: 150,650 (+34.2%)
Yuzawa Nakazato Snow Resort: 120,580 (-5%)
NASPA Ski Garden: 72,420 (-25%)
Yuzawa Kogen: 66,840 (+2.8%)
Nakazato Snow Wood: 47,620 (-11.7%)
Yuzawa Park: 25,780 (-7.1%)
There does not seem to be any data from the small town level Ipponsugi.
It is really interesting to see the big increase in numbers for Kagura, as well as the increases at Kandatsu and GALA Yuzawa. There appears to have been a significant decrease in numbers at NASPA Ski Garden, with Iwappara and other town-level ski areas also reporting lower numbers this season. Part of that is likely explained by the low snowfall at the start of the season and perhaps also by some people deciding to head higher for better snow conditions.
We'll keep an eye on these numbers and post the final (or at least almost final) season numbers and more thoughts and analysis in the last report of the season.
Yuzawa Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Wednesday 18th March 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 |
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.