Good morning from a cloudy and rather windy Yuzawa.

So much so that some resorts are going to be closed today due to the wind conditions -- all of Kagura is closed and GALA Yuzawa also. The upper parts of Naeba are closed early on and Yuzawa Kogen may also be affected. Looks like the Gondola at Maiko Snow Resort is also resting this morning, but the quad up to the bowl seems to be open.

It's already close to 10C here in town and likely to warm up to around 16 degrees today. Winter is seeming further and further away, and unfortunately there doesn't seem much chance of a late March blast of winter - not for the moment on the weekly forecast anyway. Late March snow has been known to happen though.... (he says hoping).

We do still have a lot of snow around, there's no bare patches and many resorts are reporting 2+m still.

Anyway, possibly rain later today but hopefully by tomorrow morning conditions will have calmed down.

Official resort snow depths @ Monday 18th March 2013, AM:

Naeba:
280cm
Kagura:
390cm
Kandatsu Kogen:
275cm
NASPA Ski Garden:
235cm
Gala Yuzawa:
380cm
Iwappara:
185cm
Yuzawa Kogen:
270cm
Yuzawa Nakazato:
175cm
Yuzawa Park:
180cm
----
Maiko Snow Resort:
270cm
Ishiuchi Maruyama:
250cm
Joetsu Kokusai:
210cm