Zao Now: Sunday 29th December 2019
- Dec 29, 2019
- 2 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 5cm
Snowfall at base this season 59cm
Posted on Sunday 29th December 2019 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
There has been some snow down to base it is nothing significant yet and just a light covering; hopefully a bit more higher up.
There are lots of people around now as New Year approaches, meaning that the limited areas of the resort that are open are quite busy.
A bit more of the mountain is now open including parts of Paradise and Shobunuma and the Renraku connecting course.
The forecast is saying still that snow is due on Tuesday - tomorrow is going to be slightly milder; hopefully it won't be too much.
Please check with the resort regarding nighta operations on the Yokokura area and the night operations of the Ropeway... for nighta they are delaying until at least 2nd Jan, for the ropeway it appears to be on a daily decision basis.
I just wish there was a co-ordinated centralised place for good up to date information (and I mean in Japanese, not English). Sometimes it feels like I'm going on a mystery puzzle hunt trying to put it all together, which seems odd when it's just one mountain!
(Heavy snow letting all of the mountain open... that would also certainly do the trick!)
Lifts operating:
- Mikaeri pair
- Chuo Number 1 pair AB
- Chuo Number 2 pair AB
- Diamond Number 2 pair lift
- Utopia Number 2 pair lift
- Onsen Number 1 pair
- Zao Chuo Ropeway / Zao Ropeway / Sky Cable
Ski course areas open:
- Chuo (part)
- Utopia
- Paradise (part)
- Shobunuma (part)
- Diamond (part)
- Uwanodai (part)
Official snow depths (as reported by resort):
- Summit area: 40cm
- Paradise area: 30cm
- Chuo area: 40cm
- Utopia area: 40cm
- Uwanodai area: 20cm
- Oomori area: 5cm
Zao Now 2019-2020 season |
Data as of Sunday 29th December 2019 Total snowfall at base 59cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 13 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 16cm (on 5th December) November 2019 snowfall 8cm observed on 3 days December 2019 snowfall 51cm observed on 10 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.