I hope you had the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine yesterday. Today we were greeted with light flurries of snow which should continue throughout the day and increase in volume as we approach the evening.

Temperatures rose above freezing in the valley yesterday with all the blue skies and solar radiation affected southern facing slopes, however the Northern and North Western faces have maintained snow quality.

This morning it was -6.5 C in the valley and is expected to rise upto 3 C. Up on the Hills, it will fluctuate between +1 C and -4 throughout the day with the freezing level rising to 700m. Winds remain light and breezy and are coming from the W and WNW at about 3m/s.

The resorts recorded 0 to 10 cm of fresh snow and will continue to be snow showered throughout the day with variable visibility.

Saturday is looking like cloudy with sunny periods with a high pressure system bringing clear skies into next week.

Official snow depths and operations @ Friday 13th January 2012 AM:

Hakuba Goryu:
10cm of new snowfall on the upper slopes and just a few on lower slopes this morning. All lifts apart from No2 and No4 pair are operating. All lifts due to open tomorrow for the weekend.
Official snow depths:
Alps daira - 215cm;
Toomi - 100cm;
Iimori - 100cm.

Hakuba 47:
No new snow reported at 47, all lifts apart from Line D operating and all courses open.
Official snow depth:
Upper - 188cm
Lower - 90cm

Happo-one:
Ski lifts/courses:
All scheduled lifts apart from top Grad lift and the Kurobish No3 pair (maintenance) operating at Happo.
Official snow depth:
Usagidaira/Kurobishi - 150cm;
Sakka - 90cm;
Nakiyama - 90cm.

Tsugaike Kogen:
Official snow depth:
Upper slopes - 255cm
Champion - 140cm

Hakuba Cortina:
Official snow depth:
Upper - 240cm
Lower - 160cm

Hakuba Norikura:
Official snow depth:
165cm

Hakuba Iwatake:
Official snow depth:
Upper - 150cm
Lower - 70cm

Hakuba Sanosaka:
100cm

Hakuba Minekata:
90cm