60 at Cortina apparently.

Otari is showing increase from 23cm yesterday, to 93cm at 11am today. Cortina would probably have gotten more up the top.

Nozawa Onsen was showing 21cm last night (bottom), at 11am has 72cm.

Sekiyama (near Myoko, one station north of Myoko Kogen) was on 10cm yesterday, now 71cm at 11am.

A bit of a lull in Japan right now with light westerlies, but later in the day IMO, a northerly should kick in and persist for around a day and a half.

Blue bird day yesterday and clear again this morning in Niseko. Started snowing lightly about midday, getting heavier now in late afternoon.

Two weeks to go!

Puking now at 9:30pm since about 4pm....

Fresh northerly wind and clear skies in Yokohama....... should be dumping on the resorts in central Japan!!!!!!

On the JMA site, since yesterday evening to 8am:

Sekiyama (near Myoko): +28cm (52cm -> 80cm)
Yuzawa (base town near Naeba & Kagura): +47cm (57cm -> 104cm)
Nozawa Onsen: +20cm (58cm -> 78cm)
Otari (near Cortina): +13cm (70cm -> 83cm)
Hakuba (town office): +1 (26cm -> 27cm)
Kutchan (base town near Niseko): +23cm (108cm -> 131cm)
Furano: +5cm (35cm -> 40cm)

Pick of the bunch seems to be Yuzawa

Cortina had 20cm overnight on top of it snowing all day yesterday.
Snowing lightly in the valley atm and very windy.

We had 40cms overnight and has been snowing all day .

Myoko about the same. I have just come in from moving snow since before 8 this morning with a short break for breakfast.

-6 here this arvo in the valley. Northern end is copping it today.. Very windy too.

Yuzawa looks to be the pick of the bunch....

Only 340m elevation, gateway to Kagura & Naeba, they've had 63cm since last night..... possibly 50% more at Kagura.

Clear morning and down to -15.

-16.1 at 7am, Hakuba town weather station!!

Any predictions for next two weeks in Honshu?

Warm over this weekend with snow coming in a big way from Sunday evening. IMO if you are in the Honshu hills between Monday 31st - Tuesday 9th you are going to have a good time

Strangely enough, I will be in the Honshu hills between Jan 1st and 8th, so the weather (snow) should be brilliant!!!!

Does anyone know/have links for any hakuba forecasts that are longer range than 7 days out?

Snow-Forecast.com does 9 day but its a premium service that requires subscription.

Snow-forecast is terrible at predicting snowfall, it's good at determining freze levels, best to learn how to read weather models imho, heaps easy for Japan, just got to check the wind direction (nw) and let the sea of Japan do the rest ;-)

I use weather.unisys.com

I find with snowforecast, you ignore the cms predicted and look for moderate snowfall. That seems to be accurate in predicting decent dumps.

Still looks like rain in central Japan resorts, Sat 29th/Sun 30th, and some seriously strong winds in Hokkaido Sun 30th/Mon 31st, IMO.

But good snow in central Japan from 31st Dec - 3rd Jan. And very cold with snow in Hokkaido around that time.

Friday, Dec. 28, 2012

60 spots see mercury dip to new low (Sourced from Japanese Times)

A cold wave sent temperatures to record lows for December in 60 locations Thursday morning, the weather agency said, warning the cold weather is likely to continue over the weekend.

The mercury fell to minus 28.1 in Taiki in Hokkaido, minus 11.2 in Fukushima Prefecture's Namie and minus 4.5 in Osaka Prefecture's Toyonaka, according to the Meteorological Agency.

The Sukayu hot spa area in Aomori Prefecture saw snowfall of 297 cm as of 10 a.m., a new high for the month, up from the previous record of 295 cm logged on Dec. 29, 2005.

The temperature some 1,500 meters above Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast sank to minus 14.5 on Wednesday night, more than 9 degrees lower than the average year, the agency said, adding it is very rare to observe such a strong cold air mass there even in the middle of winter.

snowing heavily atm

Interesting and promising!!!

Agree. I think the warm air may have dissipated. May only be slight R in the valley and ok up top. Next week is looking very good.

Four weeks until I hit the Hakuba slopes. Hearing about all this snow makes a nice change from worrying if there will be enough snow for my Aus / NZ trips. Can't wait!

GFS and NOGAPS are looking very different from each other.
Central Japan resorts looks like(IMO):

NOGAPS:
Sat 29: Warm but dry
Sun 30: Rain developing turning to snow
Mon 31: Snow, cold
Tue 1st: Snow easing, cold
Wed 2nd: Mainly fine, cool
Thu 3rd: Mainly fine, mild
Thu 4th: Mainly fine, mild

GFS:
Sat 29: Warm but dry
Sun 30: Rain developing turning to snow
Mon 31: Snow, cold
Tue 1st: Snow easing
Wed 2nd: Heavy snow, cold
Thu 3rd: Snow, cold
Fri 4th: Snow easing, cold

Snowing lightly in Niseko after snotting all day. Feels much warmer tonight - from what I can see in local reports -4 rather than the -10 or lower of last few nights. Wind has dropped off to zero. Looking forward to no wind and warmer conditions with more freshies tommorrow.

Superstition at Niseko Village this morning was awesome!