SNOWJAPAN.COM: Niseko Now! Daily Report

11 May 2010, 11:04am

Report: Sunday was the last day of lift operation in Niseko and although very cool it was a mostly fine day to see out the season. The run out to the base was just maintained by a thin ribbon of snow pushed up by the groomers but the skiing up top was still on an excellent cover. 09/10 was a great season for Niseko. After 3 years of well below average snowfalls we finally had a season with very close to average falls. From November to the end of April, which is 181 days, snow was reported on the mountain 121 days. So over the 6 months it snowed 2 out of every 3 days. I counted 42 of those days receiving 20cm or more snow, some of them receiving far more. The season was a little slow to get going with below average cover up until mid December but from then up until the third week of Feb it barely stopped snowing. The end of Feb saw some unseasonably warm temps with some rain but March saw winter return with great regular falls. In fact we had more snow in March than in Feb. A cool April saw the cover remain in reasonable condition for most of the month with some fairly regular snowfalls on the upper mountian maintaining a deep cover. Overall it was a great season with very few rain events and plenty of regular snowfalls keeping even the most avid powderhounds extremely happy. Total snowfall accumulation from our reports here on the upper mountain exceeded 18m. There's been a lot of debate over the years about just how much snow Niseko receives especially as the only accurate snowfall records are only kept in Kutchan and not on the mountain itself. Kutchan is situated at only 176m though and is out on the plains receiving little of the orographic precipitation we get on the mountain. My best estimate over my years of observations is that up around 1000m on the mountain we receive at least 1.5 times the amount of snow recorded down in Kutchan. Kutchan averages around 12m of snowfall annually so I estimate that up high on the mountain the average snowfall is at least 18m and would easily exceed 20m in the bigger years. Whatever the exact figure is one thing we all know is that Niseko gets a hell of a lot of snow and it is right up there with some of the best quality snow found at any ski resort on the planet. Truly an awesome place! Thanks for following these reports throughout the season and I for one am already looking forward to the next one. See you back here then. Current Official Snow Depths: Snow depth reporting has finished for the season. Still up around 2m on the upper mountain and only patchy at village level.

Snow depth: -.

Previous day depth: -.

New snowfall: 0cm.

Temperature at bottom: 8.

Temperature at top: 1.

Weather conditions: Cloudy.

Wind conditions: Moderate.

Visibility conditions: Good.

Lift Operation: Lift operations have finished for the season..

'Niseko Now' reports provided courtesy of SnowJapan.com. For archived reports since 2002, click here

Annupuri Last Update: -
	Temp	Snow Depth	Wind
Base	12 °C	60 cm	3 Kph
Top	9 °C	270 cm

Niseko Grand Hirafu Last Update: -
	Temp	Snow Depth	Wind
Base	°C	cm	Kph
Top	°C	cm	Kph

Niseko Village (Higashiyama) Last Update: -
	Temp	Snow Depth	Wind
Base	°C	cm	Kph
Top	°C	cm	Kph

Click below for long range forecasts and weather plots

Niseko Mountain Resort - Grand Hirafu
Niseko Annupuri
Weather plot for East Asia
Local Kutchan Weather
Technical Weather data for East Asia