After a warm/hot day yesterday - a bit windy as well later on - it's going to be another fine day today.

We start the day with sunshine. The local news last night was reporting a temperature of just over 27C in Yuzawa yesterday.

After a fine day yesterday with nice and warm conditions, we are expecting more fine and warm weather today.

The big news this morning is that the GALA Yuzawa resort has announced that they will be open until Sunday 22nd April.

Good morning from Yuzawa on this last day of the season for the Iwappara ski resort in Yuzawa and the Ishiuchi Maruyama, Maiko Snow Resort and Joetsu Kokusai resorts in neighbouring Minamiuonuma.

It is the 1st April and so that means the last day of the season for a handful of ski resorts.

We did get rained on later in the day yesterday, but it is dry this morning with an early mix of blue sky and cloud - both white and grey.

We have light wet snow falling at some higher elevations and rain down in town this morning.

It was approaching 20 degrees in town yesterday which is pretty shocking, so I am happy to report a real drop in temperatures this morning.

And I am very glad to report a bit of fresh snow on the ground. It's not a lot - just a sprinkling of 1-2cm or so - but it is still better than the rain we had to put up with.

There was more light snowfall during the day on and off yesterday and it didn’t really amount to much in terms of new cm, and there was even some sunshine at times in places.

Yesterday we actually saw a bit of blue sky and sunshine for a short time during the day, amongst the nastiness of early morning and later stronger winds.

After that clear start to the day, the skies quickly got overcast during the morning yesterday.

Snow was falling for much of the day yesterday though it was generally fairly light and didn't end up with much in terms of a fresh layer on the ground.