Nozawa Onsen snow report
A working onsen village that predates the resort by seven centuries, thirteen public baths at the bottom and a 39° maximum gradient above it. The catch is that base: at 565 m the January daily mean is only −1.6 °C, so the village end is rain-exposed in December and April while the top of the mountain skis into May.
Japan · Asia · live from the weather model at 565–1650 m
Conditions right now
Read at summit elevation the moment you opened this page.
Hourly windows, accumulation ranges, confidence and travel flags, or the transparent 0–100 Ski Meter score.
Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), adapted for display. Elevations are approximate published figures; forecasts are model estimates, not guarantees.
The mountain right now
The live freezing level drawn on the elevation profile. Above the snow line, precipitation falls and stays as snow.
Terrain shape is schematic; elevations are the resort's approximate published figures.
Why it snows here
Cold Siberian air crosses the Sea of Japan, loads with moisture over the warm Tsushima Current, and unloads on the first mountains it meets. Nozawa sits on the north-west flank of the Mikuni range at the Niigata border, in a district Japanese law designates a special heavy-snowfall area. The village station averages 1,087 cm a year, 366 cm of it in January alone.
Reading Nozawa Onsen like a forecaster
The number that matters most at Nozawa Onsen is the difference between the base (565 m) and the summit (1650 m): when the freezing level sits between the two, the mountain is split into rain or wet snow below and dry snow above. The Ski Meter reads the model at both elevations and scores the day with every point accounted for; the full report adds hourly timing, accumulation ranges and confidence tags so you can decide when to travel, not just whether.