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New Snow (Resort): 50cm
New Snow (Village): 40cm
Weather: Heavy snow
Snow Depth: 295cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Heavy snow continuing
Open Areas: All runs are open

Heavy snow set in around 9:00pm last night and so far around 40 cm has fallen in the village. It’s particularly cold and the snow is light and dry. It is shaping up to be an epic day in Nozawa. Better get out there in the pow and enjoy!

An interesting weather pattern has developed over the last couple of weeks which has been unusual for Japan at this time of year.

Depression after depression has approached from the southwest of Japan, passed along either the east or west coasts and then disappeared off into the pacific. As these lows approach they bring in warm moist air which usually damages the lower mountain snow pack with wettish snow or rain. As they pass the southerly flow is replaced with a northerly which is always cooler and a reasonable snowfall ensues.

Nozawa is currently being affected by one of these northerlies and heavy snow is expected tonight. The weather will clear late Saturday until another system arrives from the south on Monday. The snow level should rise again from this, rain in the village but snow on Yamabiko. Mid next week a ridge moves in and a period of sunny weather should eventuate. 

Longer term there appears to be a continuation of the current pattern. Warmer systems from the southwest. This is certainly turning out to be a frustrating season. Unfortunately it looks like you’ll need to stay up the top of Nozawa to get the best snow!

Long queues for the skyline connect

New Snow (Resort): 20cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): Nil
Weather: Clear
Snow Depth: 210cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Looking like we may get some snow tonight at the top, possibility of rain in the village though.
Open Areas: Almost everything is open except Kurokura and Hachiman. Kandahar is closed to the public.

The masses have arrived as usual for the weekend. At 11am the gondola queue at Nagasaka was out the door of the building and the skyline connect lift queue was about 60 metres long.

The snow which fell after close of lifts yesterday was tracked early on this morning and moguls are starting to appear in unusual places due to the crowds. The snow up top actually isn’t too bad on the groomed runs but the lower half is starting to get slushy due to the warm temps.

Outlook is for snow tonight and snow showers early next week.

The snow in Nozawa is currently looking very second hand. The entire mountain is tracked and the pockets of untracked that remain are fairly crunchy to ski through. However, after a couple of bluebird days clouds are beginning to roll into Nozawa from the west. Around midnight tonight we are expecting the snow to start falling here although we really want this westerly wind to turn northwest to increase the chances of a significant fall of snow. The snow should be heaviest through the night, then reducing in intensity but continuing to fall throughout Friday.

After a clear spell of weather with light winds on Saturday the weather should roll in again from across the Japan sea. We are expecting another fall Saturday night and continued light snow through Sunday.

Farther out we may get another fall next Tuesday the 10th and then long range models show a consistent run of snowy weather from the 14th until the 18th. That would be a nice gift for Valentines day.

There is a developing depression currently approaching Japan from the Southwest which is going to provide some interesting weather over the next few days.

The origin of this system is tropical so the moisture content is high and the precipitation models are showing the heaviest precipitation to approach Nozawa so far this season. The downside to this is that to begin with it will be reasonably warm. 

The current prediction has it tracking Northeast along the east coast of Honshu. This will initially push warmer southerly and easterly winds towards Nozawa with accompanying rain. The rain should begin to fall on Friday morning. As the system pushes North the winds will swing to the northerly quarter and the temperatures will drop. 

By late friday snow should develop and gradually lower to village level during Saturday. If the Low can slow it progress and stick close to the Honshu coast north of Tokyo this could produce a day of knee deep powder on Sunday.

I’ll be looking for a stick watch report early next week showing the levels well up above 2m again.

Beyond this we can expect a few falls next week and possibly a larger and colder low around the 7th/8th of Feb tracking down from Russia.

It has been very un-January like in Japan recently as warm temperatures and sadly rain have affected the resorts even up in Hokkaido. The siberian high which generates the cold northwesterly winds has been missing in action lately. When it did appear around the 23rd of Jan it was so far west the northwesterlies barely affected the Korean peninsula and we missed out altogether in Japan.

The current situation has a weak low pressure system moving northeast through the sea of Japan. A small amount of snow could be expected from this as it moves through. Following this is a significant high pressure system which will bring sunny skies through until Thursday the 29th.

The long range outlook has rain turning to snow on Friday the 30th. Then a few more days of sunny skies and hopefully some moisture coming through around the 6th of Feb.