Japan Weekly Snow Roundup #305

• Fresh snowfall returns to Honshu after mild spell 
• Hokkaido stays colder with frequent snow showers 
• Seki Onsen still reporting huge 420cm (168”) base
• Colder systems bring renewed snow later this week

Japan Ski Season Snow Report

Spring conditions continue to bring a mix of mild spells and fresh snow to Japanese ski areas. After a relatively warm period last week, snowfall returned to the mountains in Honshu over the weekend, particularly at higher elevations where temperatures dipped back below freezing and trees once again took on a frosted midwinter appearance. The light top-up created soft, grippy surfaces and quiet slopes through much of the day.

Mornings generally began clear and sunny before colder systems arrived overnight, bringing several centimetres of fresh snow and lowering the freezing level. These cooler nights have helped maintain the snowpack as the season moves deeper into March. Base depths are gradually declining, but they remain among the deepest in the world.

Myoko’s Seki Onsen (200/420cm / 80/168”), once the only resort globally to report a 6m+ base earlier this season, still sits among four Japanese ski areas reporting bases above 4m (160”). Further north in Hokkaido, temperatures remain lower and snow showers more frequent. Daisetsuzan Sounkyo Kurodake Ski Area (200/415cm / 80/166”) near Kamikawa Town reports the island’s deepest cover, followed by Niseko Tokyu Grand Hirafu (200/360cm / 80/144”).

Japan Snow Forecast
Hokkaido is expected to turn increasingly wintry from mid-week, with fresh snow developing across Niseko, Furano and Kiroro as colder air moves in from the Sea of Japan.

Snowfall should become more frequent toward the weekend, maintaining soft conditions on upper slopes. In Honshu, conditions remain more mixed. Resorts along the Sea of Japan coast, including Hakuba and Myoko, may see occasional early flurries before a colder northerly flow brings more widespread snowfall later in the week.

Further south, areas such as Nozawa Onsen and Shiga Kogen are likely to experience brighter spells between passing showers, with temperatures trending cooler into the weekend and improving high-elevation snow conditions.