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Zao Now: Tuesday 18th February 2020

  • Feb 18, 2020
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 4cm
Snowfall at base this season 232cm

Posted on Tuesday 18th February 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


Good morning.


It's snowing and there's a few cm on the ground, with hopefully more to come.


Limited visibility this morning down to base but if it brings us snow... all good.


Feels much colder this morning.


Windy too - and some lifts are on hold at the time of writing including the top section of the Zao Ropeway. If you wish to get out there and hit the slopes, I'd check before moving...


All lifts are now normally operating apart from the following:


** SOME LIFTS AFFECTED BY CONDITIONS THIS MORNING **


- Zao Paradise Number 3 pair

- Astraea Number 3 pair

- Karamatsu pair

- Yokokura Number 2 pair


- All courses are now mostly open; some restricted areas


Official snow depths (as reported by resort):


- Summit area: 80cm

- Paradise area: 90cm

- Chuo area: 100cm

- Utopia area: 80cm

- Uwanodai area: 50cm

- Oomori area: 25cm



Zao Now 2019-2020 season

Data as of Tuesday 18th February 2020 Total snowfall at base 232cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 37 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 85cm observed on 8 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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