Daisen last year not to much snow. Sorry no picture this season.
White Resort to the very very left.
Japan The Japanese snow season 2020-2021 Weather
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Daisen last year not to much snow. Sorry no picture this season.
White Resort to the very very left.
Daisen last year not to much snow. Sorry no picture this season.
White Resort to the very very left.
I was reading JMA's data. It seems Daisen (Tottori Pref) had 120cm snow in 16 hours on December 31st, 2010
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From JMA weather station sites yesterday to 6am:
- Takada, 13m: -0.5 degrees, 44cm snow (+8cm)
- Yasuzuka, 126m: -2.5 degrees, 107cm snow (+22cm)
- Tsunan, 452m: -4.5 degrees, 166cm snow (+30cm)
- Shinano-machi, 685m: -7.1 degrees, 73cm snow(+49cm)
Central Japan resort areas:
- Yuzawa, 340m: -4.4 degrees, 144cm snow depth.(+42cm)
- Sekiyama(near Myoko), 350m: -4.5 degrees, 100cm snow depth.(+40cm)
- Hakuba, 703cm: -6.6 degrees, 32cm snow depth. (+32cm). In the valley, away from the mountains
- Otari (near Cortina), 550m: - degrees, 86cm snow depth.(+51cm)
- Nozawa Onsen, 576m: -6.2 degrees, 113cm snow depth.(+41cm)
Hokkaido:
- Kutchan (near Niseko), 176m: -13.2 degrees, 101cm snow depth. (+6cm)
The wind across Niigata/ Nagano has shifted more to the west for the moment. The snow eased off about midnight. It will shift more to the north again later today.
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The places I get my cues from, for snowfall and freeze level are:
- Takada. About 2km from the sea, elevation 13 metres. This usually has substantial amounts of snow through the season (often 2m+ base). This is a good indicator for: 1 How much precip there is close to the coast. 2. how cold it is at sea level.
This is a good indicator for Myoko & Hakuba, and Nozawa Onsen to some extent.
- Yasuzuka. It is the Niigata foothills, 15km from the sea, and 25km due north of Nozawa Onsen and 35km NW of Yuzawa. Elevation 126m. This is a great indicator for precip a little ways from the coast, with just enough elevation to get substantial snow. You can get a feel for temperature and snow for the eastern Nagano resorts and Niigata
- Tsunan about 30km from the coast, in line with Yasuzuka. 20km on the road from Nozawa Onsen, & 10 km SE of Cupid Valley, 452m elevation. It cops huge amounts of snow.
- Shinano-machi (just across the border in Nagano, about 10km south of Myoko, at 685m. A good indicator for inland penetration, and amount of snow hitting the south side of Myoko resorts (e.g. Suginohara)
Still plenty of sea/lake effect cloud in this, once it swings more to the north again.
24hour snowfall:
50cm of absolute Hokkaido quality blower. The perfect quality snow for skiing and snowboarding in the perfect quantity and still snowing gently.
Certainly no super dump but probably as high quality snow as you could ask for.
It was not a very big snowfall, but 20cm of fresh snow on ski slopes overnight is actually very enough to make the ski day very enjoyable (the pictures are in Zao Onsen this morning).
Shinano machi is actually within the snow belt so not such a great place to gauge penetration IMO, you would be better off looking at Nakano shi as it only gets snow on the big events, Shinano usually gets snow every time.
Hmmm.....
My basic contention for the Japanese snowfall season is that:
- Hokkaido/Northern Honshu should expect an average season, perhaps mildly below average.
- Central Honshu should expect a below average season with the probability of more rainfall events (but not necessarily a complete weakening in the snowfall mechanism)
Yeah the climatic drivers have panned quite differently to expected.
Quite Nino-esque in the extratropics as opposed to the expected Nina. But hey, it's certainly great news!
The next few days, and 7th-10th Jan looks potentially good for snowfall too.
Snow has started again, mostly in the last 5 hours. Isobars not as tight, but there's still quite a bit of sea/lake effect cloud.
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From JMA weather station sites from midnight to 11am:
- Takada, 13m: +2.3 degrees, 67cm snow (+23cm, system total +31cm)
- Yasuzuka, 126m: +0.3 degrees, 147cm snow (+40cm, system total +62cm)
- Tsunan, 452m: -1.8 degrees, 215cm snow (+39cm, system total +79cm)
- Shinano-machi, 685m: -3.0 degrees, 87cm snow(+14cm, system total +38cm)
Central Japan resort areas:
- Yuzawa, 340m: -2.2 degrees, 187cm snow depth.(+41cm, system total +85cm)
- Sekiyama(near Myoko), 350m: -1.1 degrees, 137cm snow depth.(+37cm, system total +77cm)
- Hakuba, 703cm: -2.7 degrees, 54cm snow depth. (+22cm, system total +54cm). In the valley, away from the mountains
- Otari (near Cortina), 550m: - degrees, 106cm snow depth.(+30cm, system total +71cm)
- Nozawa Onsen, 576m: -2.1 degrees, 143cm snow depth.(+30cm, system total +71cm)
Hokkaido:
- Kutchan (near Niseko), 176m: -11.6 degrees, 118cm snow depth. (+17cm)
The wind across Niigata/ Nagano has shifted more to the northwest. The snow has picked up again from about 6am.
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The places I get my cues from, for snowfall and freeze level are:
- Takada. About 2km from the sea, elevation 13 metres. This usually has substantial amounts of snow through the season (often 2m+ base). This is a good indicator for: 1 How much precip there is close to the coast. 2. how cold it is at sea level.
This is a good indicator for Myoko & Hakuba, and Nozawa Onsen to some extent.
- Yasuzuka. It is the Niigata foothills, 15km from the sea, and 25km due north of Nozawa Onsen and 35km NW of Yuzawa. Elevation 126m. This is a great indicator for precip a little ways from the coast, with just enough elevation to get substantial snow. You can get a feel for temperature and snow for the eastern Nagano resorts and Niigata
- Tsunan about 30km from the coast, in line with Yasuzuka. 20km on the road from Nozawa Onsen, & 10 km SE of Cupid Valley, 452m elevation. It cops huge amounts of snow.
- Shinano-machi (just across the border in Nagano, about 10km south of Myoko, at 685m. A good indicator for inland penetration, and amount of snow hitting the south side of Myoko resorts (e.g. Suginohara)[/QUOTE]
JMA don't have weather stations close enough to ski slopes here in Tohoku, so I can't say how much it actually snowed on ski slopes here, but the ski slopes have been having 20cm+ overnight in the last 2 weeks very often, so we could enjoy this kind of conditions often since mid December. The video below was filmed at Tengendai today(it's somewhere between Aizu region and Zao Onsen).
This twitter is also from Today's Tengendai.
Here is JMA's weather forecast on a city in Yamagata prefecture about 100m asl. 1月4日 means January 4th and 1月9日 means January 9th, so the weather forecast is between January 4th and 9th. The bases of ski resorts that I mainly go to in the region are 700m or higher while the weather forecast is about 100m asl, so ski slopes are likely to be always colder than 0C. 降水確率% = the probability of precipitation. It's a forecast on downtown at about 100m asl. If JMA's say 60 or 70% on the downtown, it's actually "almost" 100% on mountains in the region. Today (2nd) and tomorrow (3rd) are likely to have some snow too. So, next 10 days are likely to be very good. Once ski resorts get enough snowdepth, we don't need a big dump but we need 20cm of fresh snow overnight frequently enough and it's likely to happen in the next 10 days in that it's cold enough to snow even at 100m asl and the probability of precipitation is very high.
Hijiori in Yamagata prefecture +80cm since midnight yesterday. Still ticking along at 330m ASL.
Hijiori is often the second snowiest weather stations of JMA after Sukayu (Aomori pref). The snowdepth reached 445cm on February 13th, 2018. Here is the data.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stat...ock_no=1125&year=2018&month=02&day=13&view=p1
Hijiori has Hijiori Onsen. Near Hijiori Onsen, there is another Onsen "Shizu Onsen". Shizu Onsen is even more snowy. JMA don't have a weather station there, though. The area between Gassan and Mt.Chokai is too snowy even for ski resorts (Hijiori Onsen is close to Gassan). Yudono-san ski resort is relatively near the region and it's famous for abundant snow among local skiers. This video was filmed at Yudono-san ski resort (Yamagata Pref) last month.
Nice weather in Niseko this morning. First clear conditions after several days of snow and quite cold temperatures of around -15C on the hill. Should be great fun on a very uncrowded hill for those lucky enough to be residents over there at the moment - like my eldest daughter.
This system snowfall: Best totals 151cm in Yamagata, and 100cm+ (123cm) in Niigata.
Other notable totals:
- 103cm in Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture
- 113cm in Daisen, Tottori Prefecture
Hijiori Onsen (Yamagata Prefecture) at 5:37pm today from a twitter.
These were filmed in Shizu Onsen (very near Hijiori Onsen) on February 13th, 2018. The snowdepth was 560cm. At this rate, the region can have a bigger snowdepth than 2018.
Local media are reporting it is likely to be very snowy on January 7th and 8th.
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This is sunshine duration comparison on 2020 Dec 15th - 2021 Jan 3rd with the average year. Most major ski regions have had less than 40%. JMA show sunshine durations of some weather stations in Yamagata Pref were 6 hours or less in the last 20 days. Only 6 hours in 20 days. No wonder I didn't see sunshine there.
This is precipitation comparison on 2020 Dec 15th - 2021 Jan 3rd with the average year. Sea of Japan side regions had bigger precipitation than average year in the last 20 days while Pacific Ocean side regions had a lot smaller (less than 20%) compared to average season. It's a typical sign that we had good December for skiing.
Our farmland in Ibaraki Pref is the driest in December. Chiba Pref is the same. Average December is already very dry and the precipitation of last 20 days in Chiba - Ibaraki is less than 20% of the average year, which is causing a problem in Chiba Prefecture, especially southern Chiba Pref. Mountains are important water sources. Small islands and peninsulas without tall enough mountains tend to suffer from water shortage. Japan is very mountainous / hilly, but Chiba is mountainless and it's on a peninsula, which is making Chiba Pref suffer from water shortage now(not severe one, though)
Geto Kogen has 425cm of snow now. Too much snow made some sections of Kitakami line stop. Kitakami line goes to Yokote city of Akita Prefecture. JMA has a weather station in Yokote city's downtown at only 47m asl. Only 47m asl but has 180cm of snow now, which makes the downtown look like the images below.
Local media are reporting it is likely to be very snowy on January 7th and 8th.
Today local media are saying the cold wave which will hit Japan on 7th, 8th and 9th is likely to be a stronger cold wave than the ones we've already had in this season and it's likely to be the strongest one in several years for Kyushu region and it's likely to snow even at 0m above sea level in Kyushu (Kyushu is a southern part of Japan and it's very rare to snow there at 0m above sea level).
Yup. Neg One at 0m asl with snow showers at Fukuoka city.
Roughly the same as snowing on Bondi Beach.
Sweet baby cheeses. That’s a comparison to dream about.
Incredible depths being thrown about in here, let alone snow quality. Resorts must be ghost towns.
It's been busy AF lol. But they all went back to work today.
33° 34' 59.9952'' N and 130° 23' 59.9784'' E
Impressive. Opposing latitude as Barrenjoey Lighthouse.
This is JMA's weather forecast on Fukuoka city. I remember it actually snowed in Kyushu a lot 5 or 6 years ago?. I mean, farming is one of my big hobbies and I often buy young trees of fruits from an orchard in Kumamoto Prefecture. Heavy snow hit the orchard in Kumamoto Pref and many of their young citrus trees died. Anyway, it's very rare that Fukuoka city's downtown has snowfall.
So, Yuzawa had 332cm in 2020's December, which is good, but still far from the best. The best in the last 20 years is 2005's December. 2005's December had 617cm, so nearly double of this good season. It must have been chaotic (I don't know what it was like in 2005's December because I was abroad because of my father's job). The second best in the last 20 years is 2014's December with 451cm. I remember Tohoku also had good December in 2014.
I remember 2005 December in Niseko.
It was legit nuts.
Then late January the snow stopped.
For four weeks.
Went spring like
Oops, I forgot to add this. 2019's December had only 35cm = by far the worst. The best is 617cm and the worst is 35cm!Personally.
Big snowfall totals are troublesome.
They break things.
Bury lifts
And make conditions unrideable .
This is JMA's weather forecast on Fukuoka city. I remember it actually snowed in Kyushu a lot 5 or 6 years ago?. I mean, farming is one of my big hobbies and I often buy young trees of fruits from an orchard in Kumamoto Prefecture. Heavy snow hit the orchard in Kumamoto Pref and many of their young citrus trees died. Anyway, it's very rare that Fukuoka city's downtown has snowfall.
It's not super rare - there's been measurable accumulation in Fukuoka in 8 of the last 10 years.
Up until the 80s ran to double digits regularly - much less common now.
It's not super rare - there's been measurable accumulation in Fukuoka in 8 of the last 10 years.
Up until the 80s ran to double digits regularly - much less common now.
Yep, but still very rare. I understand media and JMA say "once in decades" is actually once in several years and if they say "once in several years" is actually a few times a year. A few times a year is also very rare, I'd say. Fukuoka city having less frequently snow now is because of urban heat island, rather than global warming. I can't confirm it got warmer in rural ski resort villages like Nozawa Onsen over the last 40 - 50 years while Fukuoka city has got warmer a lot.
(It might be off topic)
It kept snowing in Hijiori tonight too and the snowdepth reached 294cm. Hijiori (Yamagata Prefecture at 330m asl) is very snowy. It reached 445cm in 2018 (3 seasons ago), however, it's the first week of January now, a lot of time to overtake 2018's 445cm. Edit: 294cm and 445cm are "snowdepth", not "snowfall". Speaking of snowfall, Hijiori's biggest yearly snowfall record is 2149cm.Last edited:
Do you have a link where you get this info from? I would love to look at some of the other stats.
JMA's English website is great, but JMA's Japanese website is even a lot better(very fantastic). Not sure if you can make the most of the data without understanding Japanese language, though. And, another issue is, JMA don't have a weather station in Madarao Kogen. They have a weather station in Sekiyama, so you might be able to know what it was like in Myokyo in the past by seeing the data of Sekiyama. It's JMA's data, so very official and reliable.
Both are facts. If you see inaka ski resort villages, the temperature hasn't risen (or only 0.1 C) over the past 40 years. And 0.1C is not very enough to make ski resort village's snow become rain. On the other hand, Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo, etc (=mega cities) have become a lot warmer (1C to 1.5C or so) in the past 40 years, which is enough to make Fukuoka city's downtown's snow become rain.
Global warming is happening, but what makes Fukuoka's snow become rain is urban heat island, rather than global warming. And actually, global warming will make some specific ski resorts more snowy because more water of Sea of Japan evaporate, it's what experts say. Well, we should not talk about global warming here, it's off topic.
Speaking of Sekiyama's this season's December (=2020), the snowfall is 261cm. Sekiyama's best December is also 2005(Yuzawa too). Sekiyama had 588cm of snowfall in 2005's December. Sekiyama's December's average is 229cm, so this season's December is slightly better than average but far from the best Decemebers in the past.Similar threads
