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Zao Now: Friday 17th April 2020

  • Apr 17, 2020
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 8cm
Snowfall at base this season 351cm

Posted on Friday 17th April 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


Hello from Zao.


Zao Onsen has announced that today is the last day of the winter season, due to the developing and fast changing coronavirus situation.


They posted a rather brief message in Japanese this afternoon.


So that's it for 2019-2020.


It has been a rather challenging season. For lots of Japan, and including Zao. Snow has been in relatively short supply and temperatures have often been milder than what we expect. (Still often very cold though up here!)


The coronavirus started to become an issue around late January when the number of visitors from overseas started to be limited and it just got bigger and bigger from there.


Let us all hope that we can get back to what we think of as normal in time for next winter.


You can check out the archive reports at any time.


I am looking forward to a recharge and look forward to a brighter situation come November.


Thank you for reading. Take care.



Zao Now 2019-2020 season

Data as of Friday 17th April 2020 Total snowfall at base 351cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 56 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 30cm (on 7th February) November 2019 snowfall 8cm observed on 3 days December 2019 snowfall 51cm observed on 10 days January 2020 snowfall 88cm observed on 16 days February 2020 snowfall 123cm observed on 15 days March 2020 snowfall 64cm observed on 9 days April 2020 snowfall 17cm observed on 3 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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