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Zao Now: Saturday 14th December 2013

  • Dec 14, 2013
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 30cm
Snowfall at base this season 100cm

Posted on Saturday 14th December 2013 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


More find and hearty greetings from Zao where we have been blessed with lots more snow overnight once again.


30cm outside my place early on to add to what we had yesterday. It's all making for a good picture this weekend with some very fine snow conditions on offer out on the mountain.


The coldest morning of the season so far as well. It was -8 degrees when I reluctantly got up this morning. It didn't take me long to get used to the idea of being up though when I saw the snow!


Utopia now reporting 100cm of snow base.


With this new snowfall, more lifts are operating this morning - down to base as well. There's much more area to slide down now with the runs down to Uwanodai now open and part of the runs by the Zao Ropeway open as well.


Official snow depths:

Utopia: 100cm

Chuo: 80cm

Paradise: 75cm

Uwanodai: 40cm


Operating lifts:

Ropeways and Gondolas

Onsen Number 1 pair

Onsen Number 2 quad

Onsen Number 3 parallel

Miaeri pair

Chuo Number 1 pair

Chuo Number 2 pair

Katakai triple

Diamond Number 2

Zao Paradise Pair

Shobunuma Number 1 triple / 2 pair

Utopia Number 1 pair



Zao Now 2013-2014 season

Data as of Saturday 14th December 2013 Total snowfall at base so far 100cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 7 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 30cm (on 12th December) November 2013 snowfall 12cm observed on 1 day December 2013 snowfall 88cm 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.


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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