Start with overnight snowfall and wind direction. Here, cold air spilling over the Tohoku spine is the pattern to watch, so the useful question is how cold and calm the next window stays. With a 740 to 1325 metre elevation band and 585 metres of vertical, the sheltered trees make modest reloads feel deeper than the raw number. A seasonal baseline around 9 metres means small clean refills matter more than waiting for a giant number. The swing variable is wind: light flow lets the trees refill, while a hard blast strips the exposed entrances. If gates are part of the day, treat wind and visibility as decision-making numbers, not small print. Chase it when 10 to 20 cm lands overnight with light to moderate wind; if gusts climb, make it a sheltered-tree day.
See which resorts in Iwate are getting the best 24 hour totals and the next two days of snow.
