Yuzawa Now: Sunday 28th May 2017
- May 28, 2017
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 24, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 0cm
Snowfall at base this season 954cm
Posted on Sunday 28th May 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
Good morning on this final day of the ski season at Kagura, and so in the region as a whole.
After the heat of last weekend, things changed once again. Happily they got cooler earlier in the week and the last few days I have even heard a few 'samui' (cold!) remarks. It's a real contrast with last week, and we have had some rain too.
This morning things are a bit wet to start off with but generally just cloudy skies are forecast for the day. Visibility up at the main Kagura area looks rather limited early on, fingers crossed that improves.
The resort are just about managing to keep the Mitsumata course back to the Ropeway open, though it's very narrow now. Still decent snow cover up at Kagura. Very good going considering that it will be June in just a few days!
Season wrap
The 2016-2017 ski and snowboard season in Yuzawa will be officially over at the end of today.
It has been a long season - the first lifts at Kagura started moving on Friday 25th November and the last lifts stopped on Sunday 28th May. I make that 185 days of skiing and snowboarding in Yuzawa.
This time round Kagura managed to stay open with decent snow cover right up until the end of the season. The webcam images shown on the report today (below) show just how much snow there is left at Kagura at the time of writing. You can compare it with the webcam image on the last report from last season, 22nd May 2016, here.
(The third image on the report today is from the top of the Ishiuchi Maruyama resort).
Anyway, let’s look back and compare the total snowfall that we have observed here in Yuzawa town over the last five winter seasons:
2016-2017 season: 954cm
2015-2016 season: 424cm
2014-2015 season: 1303cm
2013-2014 season: 833cm
2012-2013 season: 762cm
So, we observed an impressive 9.5m of snowfall here in Yuzawa town over the 2016-2017 season. And remember, there will have been more than that at higher elevations on the mountains.
We did not get as much snow as we did during that crazy 2014-2015 season, but we got more than double the amount of snow that we observed during the relatively poor 2015-2016 season.
If you look back at that snowtastic 2014-2015 season, you’ll notice just how front-loaded it was with full-on heavy snowfall during the month of December 2014. That made for an impressive early season snow base, and December was the month that brought us the most snow in that season.
The snowfall over the 2016-2017 season came in a rather different pattern. We got some decent early snowfall around the second week of December, but the second half of December got rather dry and it generally made for a rather slow and unspectacular start to the season. People were getting a bit worried that we might see a repeat of the 2015-2016 season. Ski resorts around town managed to open by the end of the year, but in places it was something of a struggle up until the second week of January.
Things changed around 11th January with a very impressive week of snowfall - we reported over 2.5 metres of snowfall over a period of seven days. And remember, that’s down at town level. That heavy snow really got things going good and proper, and we then enjoyed a few more periods of heavy snowfall and generally regular snowfall through the month of February.
More snow of course means that it lasts longer and takes longer to melt, and so this time ski resorts were easily able to remain open for as long as they planned. All good.
This past season, there was once again a noticeable increase in the number of people visiting Yuzawa from overseas. Not to the extent that you see in Niseko, Hakuba and the like, but a definite increase all the same and I would imagine that trend will likely continue.
So, here we are at the end of May.
Next up, the humid rainy season. (Please be short!)
From Friday 28th July until Sunday 30th July, the Fuji Rock Festival will be held at Naeba Ski Resort in Yuzawa town. As always there’s going to be an interesting mix of local Japanese and overseas artists – including Gorillaz, Queens of the Stone Age, The XX, Aphex Twin, LCD Soundsystem and Bjork.
After that it will likely be a hot summer.
And after that, we all are looking forward to a cooler and beautiful autumn.
And then... the 2017-2018 snow season!
We'll be here with updates from Yuzawa once again in the autumn as the next snow season approaches.
Thanks for reading, have a fun summer and see you on the other side.
Yuzawa Now 2016-2017 season |
Data as of Sunday 28th May 2017 Total snowfall at base so far 954cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 68 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 72cm (14th January) November 2016 snowfall 2cm reported on 1 day December 2016 snowfall 144cm reported on 14 days January 2017 snowfall 470cm reported on 21 days February 2017 snowfall 267cm reported on 19 days March 2017 snowfall 71cm reported on 13 days April 2017 snowfall 0cm May 2017 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.