Morning from a very snowy Yuzawa. There have been some nice big flakes coming down this morning and over 15cm of new snowfall to report and up to 30cm of fresh on the slopes. Still snowing now but visibility looks pretty decent on resorts around town right at the moment. There's even a hint of the sun through the clouds in some places, though that may well just be with the moving clouds - indeed the local Niigata forecast is for the snowy conditions to continue through the rest of today and tomorrow as well.

Not too cold out actually and right now about -1C in town. Expect it to get down to around -8C at higher elevations.

It will probably be Tuesday before we next see clearer skies and at the moment the last few days of the month are set to be milder and altogether sunnier.

Should be great conditions for the weekend though.

Official resort snow depths @ Saturday 23rd February 2013, AM:
Naeba:
320cm
Kagura:
390cm
Kandatsu Kogen:
355cm
NASPA Ski Garden:
330cm
Gala Yuzawa:
440cm
Iwappara:
275cm
Yuzawa Kogen:
340cm
Yuzawa Nakazato:
240cm
Yuzawa Park:
275cm
----
Maiko Snow Resort:
380cm
Ishiuchi Maruyama:
360cm
Joetsu Kokusai:
260cm