Zao Now: Tuesday 29th December 2015
- Dec 29, 2015
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 4, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 10cm
Snowfall at base this season 116cm
Posted on Tuesday 29th December 2015 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
10cm of fresh snow this morning in Zao Onsen, here in the village. As always expect more in higher areas on the mountain.
A few more lifts are open today including the Yokokura Number 2 pair and Astraea lifts.
Note that the Ryuzan, Kurohime and Omori areas of the resort are not yet open. Bottom line - more snow needed. Still a large part of the resort is now open and it's more connected now than it has been. Another one or two decent snowfalls and we should be there.
Let's take a look at the forecast. After today - should be snowing into this afternoon - there's not that much on the forecast for the coming week I'm afraid. It should remain cold over the next few days, perhaps a bit of snow on New Years Eve, but it is forecast to generally get a bit milder once we get into the first few days of January.
Lifts that are planned to be operating at Zao Onsen:
- Sky Cable (gondola)
- Zao Chuo Ropeway
- Zao Ropeway
- Onsen Number 1 pair
- Onsen Number 2 quad
- Onsen Number 3 Parallel AB
- Mikaeri pair
- Chuo Number 1 pair AB
- Chuo Number 1 pair AB
- Katakai triple
- Diamond Number 1 pair
- Diamond Number 2
- Zao Paradise pair AB
- Shobunuma Number 1 triple
- Shobunuma Number 2 pair
- Yokokura Number 1 pair AB
- Yokokura Number 2 pair
- Utopia Number 2 pair
- Astraea Number 3 pair
Official snow depths:
Utopia: 60cm
Chuo: 60cm
Paradise: 50cm
Uwanodai: 25cm
Zao Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Tuesday 29th December 2015 Total snowfall at base 116cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 13 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 22cm (on 27th December) November 2015 snowfall 22cm observed on 2 days December 2015 snowfall 94cm 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.