Zao Now: Saturday 9th January 2016
- Jan 9, 2016
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 4, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 6cm
Snowfall at base this season 147cm
Posted on Saturday 9th January 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
Hello from Zao on this Saturday morning, the first of the three days in this long weekend.
It is snowing outside and I have 6cm to add to the tally this morning. Not a huge amount but as I'm writing this report it is coming down good so I'm hoping for bigger numbers soon. The forecast does look like we are set for consistent snowfall now over the coming week with tomorrow night looking particularly good for heavier snowfall. Might be some stronger winds as well.
Consistent snowfall is something that we (and many areas of Japan, at least on Honshu) have been uncharacteristically missing this season and so it will be great if we can get a good healthy run of snowy days under the belt with the snow depths out there seeing consistent increases too.
Looking at the official resort information it would seem that today Ryuzan, Nakamori and Kotan are open - I imagine the resort really really wanted those to be joining in the fun for the weekend. So it is just the Omori area that remains closed this morning. Other areas are all at least part open.
With this being a long weekend there should be lots of people around. Hope you enjoy it and take care out there!
All lifts at Zao Onsen are now operating except for the Omori quad.
All areas of Zao Onsen apart from Omori are now at least part open, but snow is still thin on the ground and patchy in some lower areas of the resort.
Official snow depths:
Utopia: 50cm
Chuo: 70cm
Paradise: 55cm
Uwanodai: 20cm
Zao Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Saturday 9th January 2016 Total snowfall at base 147cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 20 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 22cm (on 27th December) November 2015 snowfall 22cm observed on 2 days December 2015 snowfall 96cm observed on 12 days January 2016 snowfall 29cm observed on 6 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.