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Zao Now: Wednesday 11th March 2015

  • Mar 11, 2015
  • 2 min read

Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 25cm
Snowfall at base this season 654cm

Posted on Wednesday 11th March 2015 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


Welcome back winter! We really like you, so stick around please.


Over 20cm of snowfall outside this morning, and a cold morning it is too. Proper winter conditions with snow still falling. March sure can be unpredictable, but we love it when it throws up conditions like these.


Well apart from strong wind that affects lifts and it looks like many are indeed affected. In fact it seems only a limited area is open this morning mostly on the left side of the mountain around Sky Cable.


You might notice the snow depth number for Utopia has jumped 35cm this morning, whether there actually is that much new snow up there I can't confirm but it sounds reasonable. Might have to go check once the lifts open...


Official snow depths:


Utopia: 260cm

Chuo: 220cm

Paradise: 215cm

Uwanodai: 160cm


Zao Onsen is generally open as planned (* note that the Karamatsu pair lift is closed on weekdays).

Many lifts affected by strong wind this morning.



Zao Now 2014-2015 season

Data as of Wednesday 11th March 2015 Total snowfall at base 654cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 58 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 80cm (on 3rd December) November 2014 snowfall 20cm observed on 2 days December 2014 snowfall 281cm observed on 21 days January 2015 snowfall 118cm observed on 15 days February 2015 snowfall 181cm observed on 15 days March 2015 snowfall 54cm observed on 5 days




All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Zao Onsen. 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.


SnowJapan is an entirely independent operation. Our daily reports are not posted on behalf of ski areas or any other business or organisation. Since first going online in 1999, the integrity of this website has always been our top priority, and it is something we are not prepared to compromise. All content is carefully created and written by humans who share a passion for the subject and what SnowJapan stands for.



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