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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The next chance for snow will be Monday. However this looks to be a relatively warm system as it originates down near Taiwan. It should produce snow up on Yamabiko however we may see some rain on the lower slopes as initially the wind will be from the south bringing in some quite warm air. Fingers crossed this doesn’t occur.

Around the 22nd or 23rd of January there is the possibility of a large snowfall. One forecast model doesn’t have much happening during this time but another shows a greatly expanding Siberian high (1064mb central pressure), strong northwesterlies crossing the sea of Japan and also significant moisture. I’m going to watch this model closely to see if it maintains this prediction. Once again fingers and toes crossed.

After a great week of snowy weather things appear to be (sadly) clearing up. We have had a consistent northwest flow providing the snow lately but the isobars are starting to slacken and the northwest winds will slowly disappear.

Expect a few days of clear weather and then around Friday the 9th we get the cold snowy northwest wind returning. This should last for about 5 days and then the long range model has another patch of fine weather around the 15th. 

All in all the forecast is not looking too bad.

The siberian high is starting to send those cold northwesterlies down towards Japan as we had all hoped and the snowy weather patterns are starting to assert themselves on the region. 

Currently a depression is moving across northern Japan and should sit just to the east of Hokkaido late on Christmas day. This will drag cold moist air down from russia in a northwesterly flow. Snow should develop during the afternoon all the way down to village level. Snow can be expected from this system all the way through to the 28th when it finally moves far enough north to stop affecting Honshu.

After a day or so of fine weather another system follows a similar path and snow should develop again on the 30th.

The long range models show a stable siberian high coupled with a series of low pressure systems out near the Kamchatka peninsula. This means there is a good chance of consistent snowfall for the forseeable future.

It’s time to indulge!!

The resorts of Honshu have been waiting patiently for the last couple of weeks whilst the likes of Niseko up north have been enjoying fresh pow reasonably consistently. The desired weather pattern where a high pressure system sits over northern Mongolia and directs north/northwest winds down to Japan is starting to establish itself over the next few days. 

The forecast calls for the odd flurry on Thursday the 18th but then clearing to sunny skies with light winds. On Monday the 22nd the wind returns from the north and the long range models show that flow sticking around until the new year. Snow should fall on most days with only the 24th, 27th and 29th looking dry.