February 19th Forecast Graphic and Hokkaido's Next Storm

Hi all,

I wanted to give you all a little look at our next storm which while a quick hitter will bring some moderate snow to Hokkaido tomorrow. Here is a brief weather synopsis:

The strong winds yesterday were brought on by a robust surface low moving through the region currently it is located to the NE of Hokkaido moving off across southern parts of Kamchatka Peninsula. However, morning observations are showing the system is still responsible for NW winds of moderate strength to the major ski resorts. As the system continues on its merry way towards Alaska and the Polar Regions the winds will decrease and turn to the West/WSW this evening. The decrease in wind speeds will cut off on the ocean effect snow across Hokkaido that is currently ongoing in several bands, specifically in the Sapporo and Furano regions. These is no reason to fear though as the next system is prone to start impacting Hokkaido starting tomorrow morning.

The system will likely be a quick hitter with the majority of snow ending in the overnight period of February 20/21, there will still be ocean effect snow bands across the western portions of Hokkaido which will lead to further accumulations. Total accumulations will be quite decent for the short lived event with the highest amounts of 10 to 30cm (more at higher elevations) falling in the Niseko, Kiroro, Rusutsu triangle. Lower amounts of 10 to 20cm will fall further north around Furano, however I do expect there to be a sharp gradient in the Furano region with locations north of this cutoff only receiving 2 to 5cm from the main system.

Paul