Lots to report this morning.

The rain didn't do us any favors yesterday in terms of melt and snow conditions... but quickly and happily moving on, snow is about to make another hopefully dramatic entrance.

A cloudy day forecast today with snow at times, one of those times being now and it will be staying cold not straying too far above the zero mark.

There has been another 5-10cm or so of fresh snow in the village and base areas this morning.

Well, well, it's all very exciting this morning.

More snow to report this morning and I'm happy to report that today marks the official start of the season in Hakuba with Happo-one part opening from 9am this morning.

I was just over at Hakuba 47 where there's about 10cm of fresh snow on the ground.

Not that much going on down at village level for the most part, coming down nicely at one point yesterday evening, but better news higher up on the mountains.

It is a fine middle of the day here with the sun out and lots of blue sky, which is far preferable to all that rain of the last few days.

It was a beautiful day in Hakuba yesterday.

That means that the snow season is now officially over at all of the ski resorts in the Hakuba area - you're going to have to hike higher now if you still want snow!

After rain dampening spirits just a bit (or maybe a bit more) yesterday, this morning it's brighter and the sun is making an appearance.

It's quite bright this morning but hazy.

We were expecting sun this morning but to start the day off there's lots of cloud, it's rather dull and actually poor visibility up on the mountains by the looks of the webcams.