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Zao Now: Friday 7th March 2014

  • Mar 7, 2014
  • 2 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata


New snowfall at base 15cm
Snowfall at base this season 491cm

Posted on Friday 7th March 2014 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.


Brrrrrr, very cold this morning. Mid winter cold. And we have 10-15cm of fresh snowfall as well in the village, so that and more probably on the mountain this morning. The top ropeway station is logging a temperature of -16 degrees. That really is mid winter!


At the moment it is cloudy, some breaks in the cloud, and hardly any wind at all. Which is surprising as we were expecting some stronger winds - maybe there are coming up later in the day.


Forecast for the coming week is promising in terms of continued snowfall and cold conditions - just need to keep an eye on the wind.


Official snow depths:

Utopia: 290cm

Chuo: 260cm

Paradise: 280cm

Uwanodai: 180cm



Zao Now 2013-2014 season

Data as of Friday 7th March 2014 Total snowfall at base so far 491cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 50 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 50cm (on 16th February) November 2013 snowfall 12cm observed on 1 day December 2013 snowfall 179cm observed on 18 days January 2014 snowfall 111cm observed on 18 days February 2014 snowfall 166cm observed on 10 days March 2014 snowfall 23cm observed on 3 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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