Sorry for the late report, but...I told you so! Yesterday's fine weather just seemed too strange, and it was.

There's a great word that pilots and sailors use - "sucker hole" - for a short spell of nice weather that suckers you into thinking it's going to be a nice day.

Snow is falling, and it seems to be picking up in quantity (and the quality doesn't look too bad either!).

A new snow cycle has begun after one sunny day.

After a day of steady snowfall, the stars came out about 9 pm--following some beautiful, big, star-shaped flakes floating down (wish we had more of those, instead of the smaller, wind-packed flakes that made things slow in the powder except on steeper slopes).

Be careful what you wish for: one of the fine people behind this website and I were chatting yesterday about how we miss the almost-emergency days of the past few years when the snow takes over daily life.... well, it almost happened today.

It was looking like just a gray day until just a few minutes ago, and then some light snow started to fall again.

No official snow reports out yet, but we got very little snow since yesterday--just a light dusting.

The day started with some continuing light snow, after the most perfect snowflakes late last night--big, sparkly star-like flakes that probably meant great powder this morning (while I sit at my desk---grrr--but I'm out in a few minutes).

It's a sunny, cold day today. Colder than I think some of the resorts are showing; I had -9°C in the car (which is surprisingly accurate), -8°C on the outside digital thermometer.

Snow! Lots of snow! It's very 'Myoko' out there this morning, with heavy snowfall, delayed trains and people heading out early to try and get back to the big cities. Meaning a great day for the powderhounds.

Oh, people; snow is the norm. Snow is what we want. Sun is something we may or may not see once or twice a month. We want it to just keep on falling.

A sushi run down to Joetsu, on the Japan Sea, had us pretty excited last night--blasting snow obscuring vision (OK, if a little too much wind).

Heading for the hills today, so a quick report before I run! The ski resorts haven't released data yet, but it's a bit mild (right around 0°C) with some moderate to strong winds from the west.