Yuzawa Now: Tuesday 7th May 2019
- May 7, 2019
- 4 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 Tuesday 7th May 2019 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
From today, just the Kagura resort remains open - via the Mitsumata Ropeway. The Tashiro Ropeway is now closed, as is the GALA Yuzawa resort.
Yesterday later on in the day we had some dramatic thunder, lightning and also some very heavy rain at times. It was really coming down.
It is colder again this morning and guess what... this morning at 7am Kagura is actually reporting 3cm of fresh snowfall on the upper slopes of the resort (!) and apparently it is still snowing. (Note: It is raining down in town).
This snow/rain is not likely to last long though with clearer skies and some sunshine forecast, perhaps even from this morning. And from tomorrow we are due a run of sunny days through until at least the weekend and probably into next week.
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Kagura
Planned operating lifts at Kagura:
- Mitsumata Ropeway [8:00am until 5:00pm - last one down at 4:00pm]
- Mitsumata Number 1 quad lift [8:00am until 4:30pm]
- Mitsumata Number 2 romance pair lift [9:00am until 4:30pm]
- Kagura Gondola [8:15am until 4:00pm - last one down at 3:30pm]
- Kagura Number 1 quad lift - 8:30am until 3:45pm]
Information:
- Kagura remains open via Mitsumata Ropeway
- You can still ski on the slopes at both Mitsumata and Kagura
- The Tashiro Area and downhill course to base at Mitsumata are closed
- Kagura plans to be open until Sunday 26th May
Official snow depth:
- Kagura 180cm
- Mitsumata 120cm
All other ski resorts in the Yuzawa and Minamiuonuma region are now closed for the season.
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Yuzawa Now reports season wrap-up
Now that Golden Week has now ended, 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 in town. Nice. That’s 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 that total snowfall had fallen by the end of January, with snowfall really drying up in the second half of February. But then some decent snowfall as late as early April. And it's kind of funny that there is actually 3cm of snowfall being reported by Kagura this morning - on the 7th May!!
While it feels like ‘spring’ has been very long this season, the snow has really kept well on the mountains.
Looking back, last season GALA Yuzawa closed on 22nd April 2018. This season GALA managed to remain open until 6th May. And if you compare the webcam images from 6th May last year at Kagura, there’s a marked difference in how much snow remains this season. This time last year at Mitsumata there was just a thin stretch of snow back down to base to be used as a connecting course. This year there’s still snow cover on the Mitsumata slopes. It will be interesting to see how much of Kagura remains open over the coming weeks.
Yuzawa Now 2018-2019 season |
Data as of Tuesday 7th 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.