Japan Snow Forecast - Japan Ski Tours

January 21st Forecast Graphic: Hakuba getting hammered with snow

1/21/2017

The Hakuba region will be experiencing very heavy snow, especially early this morning, totals may reach up to 45cm in some areas! With all this snow and the gust winds this morning please take proper avalanche precautions, but also enjoy the powder day!

January 20th Forecast Graphic

1/20/2017

January 19th Forecast Graphic

1/19/2017

January 18th Forecast Graphic

1/18/2017

Hi everyone, here is the forecast graphic for today 1/18/2017. Stay tuned for a longer range forecast which will be issued in the sometime between 9am and noon of the 18th. There is the potential of a storm tonight (1/18) into tomorrow morning (1/19). That should drop some new powder that you skiers and snowboarders will absolutely love.

Looking around the region current snow depths are making me jealous of all of you enjoying the powder; Akaigawa (107cm), Kutchan (100cm), but the big winner for all of Hokkaido is up in the northwest at Shumarinai where they have 158cm on the ground! The amounts are going to be higher in the mountains and I would love to hear what everyone is seeing around the region.

Up in the Furano and Asahikawa region, snow depths reveal Asahikawa (53cm) and Furano (50cm), however these are at elevations of 120m and 174m above sea level. If we look at the resorts around this region the snow depth should be significantly deeper.

Kamui ski links, located to the west of Asahikawa, tops out at ~735m. The height along with location means much higher snow totals. As snow showers move in from the sea they encounter the mountains around Kamui, which squeeze the moisture out of the storms prior to reaching Asahikawa.

Furano ski resort, overlooking Furano from the west, rises to over 1000m. This is the first mountain region over 600m that snow squalls will encounter as they move inland. As a meteorologist this tells me that for every 1cm of snow that Asahikawa receives the highest runs of Kamui ski links should receive 2-3cm, while in Furano the top of Furano ski resort should receive at least 4-5X the amount of Furano. However, due to compaction of the snow this does not mean that the snow depth will be as drastic. The point of this is that if you wake up to only a couple cm of snow at your hotel do not get discouraged and head up those lifts because it very well might be a powder day. This could be the scenario tomorrow (1/19) with a storm coming in tonight (1/18).

Enjoy your day
Paul

January 17th Forecast Graphic

1/17/2017

January 16th snowfall graphic

1/16/2017

January 15th update 9:50am: Heavy Snow coming onshore

1/15/2017

Heavy snow is now making its way onshore from the NW covering Kiroro and moving into Niseko. Road conditions and visibility are rapidly deteriorating. Please use caution. Below is a radar screen shot from 9:50am (courtesy of JMA) and a traffic camera at 9:25am (courtesy of hbc.co.jp), west of Akaigawa.

January 15th forecast graphic

1/15/2017

Update: Snow Increasing in coverage and intensity overnight

1/14/2017

A low pressure system is spinning off the SE coast of Hokkaido currently, bringing with it snow potentially quite heavy. Down to the south towards Mori and Onuma they have picked up in excess of 20cm with much of it falling it this evening. The high resolution models are putting out some pretty impressive numbers and while I think it is overdoing the totals, I would not be surprised to see some decent totals. I will have a full forecast in the morning, but I will leave you with this pretty crazy snowfall map from our in-house high resolution model (yes it is saying +40cm).

Paul

January 14th forecast graphic

1/14/2017

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