Zao Now: Friday 23rd March 2018
- Mar 23, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 6, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 4cm
Snowfall at base this season 753cm
Posted on Friday 23rd March 2018 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
I have some fresh snow to report this morning! Almost 3cm here on the ground. It's kind of wet snow with the temperature currently at 3C, but certainly welcome at this stage of the season. Not much of a wind at all and cloudy skies with light snow falling.
Once these clouds pass, from tomorrow the forecast is showing that run of clear and fine weather conditions through next week - and it seems like it will be warming up as well particularly as we get to mid week.
Lifts and course info:
Most course areas remain open. Some lifts affected by weather this morning.
The following lifts have now closed for the season:
- Zao Paradise Number 3 pair
- Diamond Number 1 pair
- Zao Kokutai
- Ryuzan pair
- Karamatsu pair
Official snow depths:
- Summit area: 175cm
- Paradise area: 190cm
- Chuo area: 190cm
- Utopia area: 175cm
- Uwanodai area: 95cm
- Oomori area: 90cm
Zao Now 2017-2018 season |
Data as of Friday 23rd March 2018 Total snowfall at base 753cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 65 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 42cm (on 12th February) November 2017 snowfall 66cm observed on 5 days December 2017 snowfall 193cm observed on 19 days January 2018 snowfall 275cm observed on 21 days February 2018 snowfall 195cm observed on 15 days March 2018 snowfall 24cm observed on 5 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.