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Zao Now: Thursday 23rd January 2020

  • Jan 23, 2020
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 18cm
Snowfall at base this season 146cm

Posted on Thursday 23rd January 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


Good morning from Zao and apologies for the missed report yesterday.


Yesterday we enjoyed fresh snow on the ground early morning but mostly clear blue skies during the day with just a few thin clouds in places. It was a beautiful day made better with fresh snow to enjoy.


The snow depth numbers are far from large still but it is still good to see them rise to 80cm.


The other really good news is that more lifts are now operating and more courses are available open. In fact there's now only 5 lifts on hold as far as I can tell which is great news. In the daily information I post below, I am now noting the lifts and courses that are NOT open, rather than the ones that are open. There are still limitations and we are not fully open yet, but it is of course very good to see more at last opening up.


There is no cm of fresh snowfall to report this morning from base (the snowfall number in the report today is from yesterday), and it is has been a cloudy morning with light snow currently falling.


All lifts are now normally operating apart from the following:


- Zao Paradise Number 3

- Yokokura Number 2 pair

- Oomori quad

- Karamatsu pair

- Ryuzan pair


All areas are now normally at least part open apart from the following:


- Kotan

- Ryuzan

- Karamatsu

- Oomori


Official snow depths (as reported by resort):


- Summit area: 70cm

- Paradise area: 70cm

- Chuo area: 80cm

- Utopia area: 80cm

- Uwanodai area: 40cm

- Oomori area: 40cm



Zao Now 2019-2020 season

Data as of Thursday 23rd January 2020 Total snowfall at base 146cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 28 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 18cm (on 21st January) November 2019 snowfall 8cm observed on 3 days December 2019 snowfall 51cm observed on 10 days January 2020 snowfall 87cm observed on 15 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.


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