Zao Now: Saturday 13th December 2025
- Dec 13, 2025
- 2 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 1cm
Snowfall at base this season 66cm
Posted on Saturday 13th December 2025 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
Some strong wind again last night and some very light snow early on this morning.
Today is the main opening of the ski area, but it's still fairly limited - basically just to the Chuo and Uwanodai areas.
We need more snow to open up in a major way.
More snow due tomorrow and it looks like some very strong winds too.
---------------
Ski lifts operating (planned):
Onsen Number 1 pair
Chuo Number 1 pair
Chuo Number 2 pair
Ski runs open (planned):
Chuo (part)
Uwanodai (part)
Official snow depth (reported by ski area):
Yokokura area: 30cm
Uwanodai area: 30cm
Utopia area: 50cm
Chuo area: 30cm
Paradise area: 20cm
Summit area: 30cm
Zao Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Saturday 13th December 2025 Total snowfall at base 66cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 8 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 23cm (on 4th December) November 2025 snowfall 5cm observed on 2 days December 2025 snowfall 61cm observed on 6 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.