Zao Now: Wednesday 31st January 2018
- Jan 31, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 6, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 1cm
Snowfall at base this season 534cm
Posted on Wednesday 31st January 2018 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Zao.
Just a dusting of snow to report this morning, I can just about justify 1cm for the report.
And it is just cloudy at the moment. Perhaps some fresh snow today with clearer skies forecast tomorrow and Friday.
If you plan to be here for the weekend though, come prepared for potentially good snowfall Friday night into Saturday.
You might have seen on the news about the volcano alert level at the nearby crater being raised yesterday. Hmmm. No other information for you on that, other than... life goes on as normal and there has been no 'events' to relay. Zao Onsen village is about 5km away from the area concerned and the tourism office has issued an announcement that we are 'unaffected'. We live with these things here in Japan!
Lifts and course info:
- All lifts appear to be opening as scheduled
- Note: the Karamatsu pair lift usually only operates on weekends
- All areas open
Official snow depths:
- Summit area: 170cm
- Paradise area: 200cm
- Chuo area: 200cm
- Utopia area: 220cm
- Uwanodai area: 120cm
- Oomori area: 145cm
Zao Now 2017-2018 season |
Data as of Wednesday 31st January 2018 Total snowfall at base 534cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 45 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 34cm (on 10th January) November 2017 snowfall 66cm observed on 5 days December 2017 snowfall 193cm observed on 19 days January 2018 snowfall 275cm observed on 21 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.