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Zao Now: Saturday 2nd February 2019

  • Feb 2, 2019
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 18cm
Snowfall at base this season 389cm

Posted on Saturday 2nd February 2019 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


My many apologies for the missed reports over the last few days. It could not be avoided. I am hoping that I really will be able to get back to normal from now. Will do my best. For now I have gone back and added the snowfall for the days that we had it.


Anyway, just was just a bit of snow over the last few days but this morning there was a good 18cm of fresh. Still some moderate wind blowing around so we are all hoping for that to ease off quickly... but might need to have a few more windy condition days before we can hope for that.


Not much snow on the forecast either for the next few days and as with many other regions of Japan tomorrow is looking set to be unseasonably warm. There is even a chance of rain, even up here. Here's hoping we can avoid that.


Operation info from official sources:


- All lifts normally operating

- All main courses normally open


Official snow depths (as reported by resort):


- Summit area: 130cm

- Paradise area: 170cm

- Chuo area: 170cm

- Utopia area: 160cm

- Uwanodai area: 120cm

- Oomori area: 125cm





Zao Now 2018-2019 season

Data as of Saturday 2nd February 2019 Total snowfall at base 389cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 40 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 43cm (on 29th December) November 2018 snowfall 7cm observed on 3 days December 2018 snowfall 218cm observed on 18 days January 2019 snowfall 145cm observed on 17 days February 2019 snowfall 19cm observed on 2 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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