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Zao Now: Thursday 12th January 2017

  • Jan 12, 2017
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 13cm
Snowfall at base this season 193cm

Posted on Thursday 12th January 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


Good morning from Zao.


It's a suitably cold and snowy January morning here and I have 13cm of fresh snow to report on the ground. It's all adding up and I see that the official snow depth for Chuo and Paradise have at last risen to 1m!


The forecast still tells us to expect a lot more snow over the next four days so we can hope to see those numbers rise more.


As long as wind doesn't affect things, conditions should be good for the weekend. Do get suitably kitted up though as it very likely won't be the friendliest of weather conditions. If you prefer clearer skies and some sunshine, that is probably going to happen early next week.


After a busy New Year and long weekend, things have quietened down considerably this week.


The following lifts are not operating:

Karamatsu pair

Paradise Number 3 pair

Yokokura Number 2 pair


Official snow depths:

Chuo - 100cm

Utopia - 95cm

Uwanodai - 60cm

Paradise - 100cm



Zao Now 2016-2017 season

Data as of Thursday 12th January 2017 Total snowfall at base 193cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 29 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 25cm (on 5th January) November 2016 snowfall 11cm observed on 6 days December 2016 snowfall 98cm observed on 16 days January 2017 snowfall 84cm observed on 7 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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