26 Oct Snow Watch Winter 2016/17

One of the common questions we get at this time of year is what will the snow be like on a certain date. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing, but we can tell you where we get our information, and you can head down the snow prediction rabbit hole! If your winter ski trip (or day to play in/experience snow) is to Yuzawa or Minami Uonuma this year, some of these links might be of use.

Data from previous years – Snow Japan have volunteers in various parts of the country writing daily reports during winter season on snow and weather conditions. This is the Yuzawa Now page on Snow Japan. If you scroll down to the bottom of that page you can find their archive of reports going back years. Past snowfall is no indicator of what will happen this year, but you can have a look at your dates from previous years to see what the conditions have been like at that time. As the season draws closer the daily reports are worth a check just to see what is happening.

Webcams – Here is a list of webcams across the country on Snow Japan. The Yuzawa and Minami Uonuma ones are the most relevant for this region. The ones we tend to check in the run up to the season are those on the bottom left hand side of the Kagura Ski Resort homepage. Kagura is the first ski area to open in this region and if their slopes are looking white, it tends to bode well for everyone else. Kagura opens on November 19th 2016. If there is little or no snow at Kagura then people will be skiing/boarding on their plastic snowmat.

Ask us – Drop us a message and we can tell you what things are looking like outside our window. For our ski and snowboard lessons in every Yuzawa resort we are constantly checking the snow and will take our customers to the best slopes available on that day.

And if you want to impress people with your local knowledge here are Post 1 and Post 2 of our Predicting Snow Like a Local series.

List of ski area opening dates in and around Snow Country, Yuzawa, and Minami Uonuma.

• Kagura on November 19th 2016
• Okutadami Maruyama on November 26th 2016
• Maiko, Tashiro, & Naeba on December 10th 2016
• Yuzawa Park, & Muica on December 16th 2016
• Yuzawa Nakazato, Kandatsu Kogen, GALA Yuzawa, & Hakkai-san on December 17th 2016
• Ishiuchi Maruyama on December 21st 2016
• NASPA Ski Garden on December 22nd 2016

Fingers crossed for plenty (and early) snow!