Yuzawa Now: Sunday 26th May 2019
- May 26, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 25, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 1042cm
Posted on Sunday 26th May 2019 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
Today (Sunday 26th May) is the last day of the official ski and snowboard season at Kagura - and in the Yuzawa area as a whole.
It feels like it has been a very long 'spring season' this year but Kagura has done well remaining open like it has. Check the photos taken yesterday (below) - there is still a decent amount of snow up on that main slope, even after the strong winds, rain and then heat that we have experienced over the last week. Kagura could probably even extend their season a bit more if they really wanted to... but there is no such news and today is definitely the last day of operations, which are the same as yesterday.
Down in town, yesterday was hot and today will probably be a bit hotter still. It is due to rise above 30C. Happily the humidity hasn't kicked in yet.
Next up: the humid rainy season and then a hot summer.
Yuzawa town is of course host to the popular Fuji Rock Festival which is held at the base of the Naeba ski resort from Friday 26th July until Sunday 28th July. This year the headline artists are The Chemical Brothers, SIA and The Cure with tons of other Japanese and overseas artists.
The Yuzawa Now reports will be back in November to cover the 2019-2020 winter season.
So that's it for now! Thanks for reading the reports this season.
We hope you have a good summer and see you in November.
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Yuzawa Now reports season wrap-up
Originally posted on 6th May / Edited for today
Here’s how much snowfall we have observed in Yuzawa town in each of the last seven winter seasons:
2018-2019 season: 1042cm
2017-2018 season: 857cm
2016-2017 season: 954cm
2015-2016 season: 424cm
2014-2015 season: 1303cm
2013-2014 season: 833cm
2012-2013 season: 762cm
Over 10m of snow down at town level. Very nice. And there'll be quite a bit more than that at higher elevations.
That is more than the last two seasons, about 2.5 times what we got in the rather sad-looking 2015-2016 season... though not as much as in that classic-for-snowfall 2014-2015 season.
It’s interesting to see the final total numbers like that though, especially remembering how the snowfall was spread over the season.
778cm – that’s nearly 75% - of the total season snowfall had fallen by the end of January. Snowfall really dried up in the second half of February. But then we got some decent snowfall as late as in early April.
Last season (2017-2018) the GALA Yuzawa resort closed on 22nd April 2018. This season GALA Yuzawa managed to remain open until 6th May.
And while Kagura closes at the end of today (Sunday 26th May), there is still a decent amount of snow on the slopes up there. It is interesting to compare the images on the Yuzawa Now reports from previous seasons - you can view all our archive reports using the links towards the bottom of this page.
Let's hope that next season will get a lot of snow, ideally spread consistently across the season.
Yuzawa Now 2018-2019 season |
Data as of Sunday 26th May 2019 Total snowfall at base so far 1042cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 62 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 63cm (22nd January) November 2018 snowfall 2cm reported on 1 day December 2018 snowfall 253cm reported on 13 days January 2019 snowfall 523cm reported on 24 days February 2019 snowfall 190cm reported on 14 days March 2019 snowfall 50cm reported on 6 days April 2019 snowfall 24cm reported on 4 days May 2019 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.