Zao Now: Tuesday 31st December 2013
- Dec 31, 2013
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 2, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 2cm
Snowfall at base this season 191cm
Posted on Tuesday 31st December 2013 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
A few cm of new snowfall again in Zao, no wind, a mild 0 degrees and cloudy/foggy conditions with snow falling still.
We are still looking at possibly heavy snow and strong winds tomorrow according to local forecasts.
So here we go full on New Years and a busy Zao Onsen.
The lifts are busy and in particular the lower section of the Zao Ropeway can get extremely busy - they even need to hand out special tickets to schedule when you can get on the thing. I highly recommend taking the lifts rather than the Ropeway on days like this. You might be sitting on a lift but it beats waiting for a long time to get on a Ropeway. The lift just by the base of the Ropeway is the starting point, or even better if you are in a car drive over to the Kurohime area and get one of those speedy quads up the mountain.
Official snow depths:
Utopia: 155cm
Chuo: 145cm
Paradise: 155cm
Uwanodai: 90cm
Zao Now 2013-2014 season |
Data as of Tuesday 31st December 2013 Total snowfall at base so far 191cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 19 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 30cm (on 12th December) November 2013 snowfall 12cm observed on 1 day December 2013 snowfall 179cm observed on 18 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.