Zao Now: Thursday 18th December 2025
- Dec 18, 2025
- 2 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 4cm
Snowfall at base this season 91cm
Posted on Thursday 18th December 2025 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
Generally cloudy this morning with some very slight snowfall in places and some signs of blue sky in places.
I really wish it was not so, but the forecasts into next week are not teasing us with the chance of much (any?) snow. It's generally more sun than snow. And some very mild conditions centering around Saturday and Sunday.
We can hope that it will get colder again on Monday and perhaps Santa has some fluffy gifts for us...
---------------
Ski lifts operating (planned):
Onsen Number 1 pair
Onsen Number 2 quad (unconfirmed)
Chuo Number 1 pair
Chuo Number 2 pair
Mikaeri pair
Utopia Number 2 pair
Ski runs open (planned):
Chuo
Uwanodai
Utopia
Official snow depth (reported by ski area):
Yokokura area: 35cm
Uwanodai area: 30cm
Utopia area: 60cm
Chuo area: 30cm
Paradise area: 20cm
Summit area: 45cm
Zao Now2025-2026 season |
Data as of Thursday 18th December 2025 Total snowfall at base 91cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 13 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 23cm (on 4th December) November 2025 snowfall 5cm observed on 2 days December 2025 snowfall 86cm observed on 11 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.