Yuzawa Now: Sunday 23rd May 2021
- May 23, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 26, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this seas 1109cm
Posted on Sunday 23rd May 2021 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Yuzawa.
The very long season comes to an end today. After an unseasonably cool and rather wet May, it looks like we might get some mixed weather conditions today - some sun early morning, probably lots of cloud during the day and maybe some rain.
Temperatures should be rising soon and no doubt we will be having another very hot summer. Summer skiing on artificial mats will be on offer on the Mitsumata slope of Kagura (about 1100m) and GALA Yuzawa (about 350m) as below:
Kagura: Weekends & holidays from 10th July through 3rd October (plus 10th-13th August, 24th September)
GALA Yuzawa: Weekends & holidays from 22nd July through 5th September
The Fuji Rock Festival music festival is still hoping to go ahead this year over at Naeba (20th-22nd August). It looks like it will be a mostly Japanese artist line-up this year and they are of course planning various covid measures.
As for the 2021-2022 winter season... hopefully that can get going at Kagura from late November.
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A look back at 2020-2021 (Yuzawa version)
After the disappointing snowfall in the 2019-2020 winter season, people were somewhat apprehensive about what to expect for 2020-2021. Would we be able to get back to what we are used to… heavy snow?
The first snow of the season down to town level was recorded on 14th December 2020 and for a period of about a week it hardly stopped. It was relentless.
42cm, 96cm, 76cm, 38cm, 32cm, 51cm, 40cm. Over a span of seven days, the Yuzawa Now reports clocked up 375cm of snowfall. And remember, that’s down at town level. Incredible!
The first 10 days of January was pretty impressive too.
We were blessed with a deep (and rather sudden) base of snow, and that allowed the ski areas across the region to pretty much open as planned – though some had to spend time ‘dealing’ with it all.
Having a good base right from the start is a great way to start the season and there were some excellent early season conditions for those here to enjoy it.
The rate of snowfall started to slow down after that. We got fairly regular snowfall through February, but things warmed up more than we would have liked between the snowstorms and we did get some rain. Luckily we had that deep base.
Only 9cm of snowfall was recorded at town level during the month of March (in the report on 3rd March), and that actually ended up being the last snowfall recorded down in town. That meant that the spring season felt particularly long this year.
But even with a lack of fresh snow from March, that early deluge from mid-December through early January meant that snow cover was never been a problem.
That would be enough of a story in any year but, of course, we also had the coronavirus situation to deal with this time.
Tokyo went into that so called 'state of emergency’ in early January and while it was not a full-on lockdown, it certainly affected the number of people visiting the Yuzawa region. The situation made it somewhat awkward for ski resorts to go out there and pro-actively encourage people to come. And there were perhaps more day trips than overnight stays, which affected hotels and other accommodations.
Some ski areas adjusted their operations to varying degrees. There were some disruptions mid-season. Some ski areas actually seemed to remain fairly busy. Some were extremely quiet. Some were more affected by the lack of inbound guests than others. But in the end, everyone has been affected.
The archive Yuzawa Now reports can be read through any time, so for a detailed look back at the season please do check those out. We recommend the reports during that early season heavy snow! Those were exciting times.
Everyone is of course hoping for a brighter worldwide travel situation come autumn. As much as you might be wanting to visit, be assured that there’s lots of people here eagerly waiting to welcome you back.
That’s it from Yuzawa Now for the 2020-2021 season.
See you in November.
Yuzawa Now 2020-2021 season |
Data as of Sunday 23rd May 2021 Total snowfall at base so far 1109cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 43 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 96cm (16th December) November 2020 snowfall 0cm December 2020 snowfall 453cm reported on 13 days January 2021 snowfall 355cm reported on 15 days February 2021 snowfall 292cm reported on 14 days March 2021 snowfall 9cm reported on 1 day April 2021 snowfall 0cm May 2021 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.