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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 11 years ago November 13, 2012

Site Update: Compare snow forecasts for EVERY ski area in the USA

The goal of OpenSnow.com is to help you find the best snow, and I think we've done a pretty good job of that so far. What differentiates OpenSnow from other sites is that we only focus on forecasting snow, and we have local weather forecasters that talk you through a storm and point you in the right direction. Our local forecasters are key.

But we can't have a local forecaster everywhere, and because of this, many areas of the country didn't have a specific snow forecasts for each mountain. Until now.

We are thrilled to announce that as of right now, we display a 3+ day snow forecast for every mountain in the US (including backcountry areas), even if we don't have a local forecaster covering that area. In those cases, we pull data from the National Weather Service, which is the most accurate forecast aside from our local forecasters. 

The benefit to you is that you can now compare forecasts for every mountain and find the most powder. Plus, we show you who made your forecast - our forecaster or the National Weather Service - so you are confident in where the information came from.

For example, here's my personal dashboard showing some of my favorite mountains like Alyeska, AK, Arapahoe Basin, CO, and Mt Baker, WA (create a list of your favorite areas here). Notice the icon to the right of each forecast. Mouse over the person icon to see who made the forecast (top image) or mouse over the computer icon to confirm the forecast was made by someone at the local National Weather Service office (bottom image). The best part is now you can compare forecasts for any mountain around the country, whether we have a local forecaster or not!

Dashboard Joel Gratz

Dashboard NWS

Local OpenSnow.com forecasters will make forecasts for five days while snow forecasts from the National Weather service are only available for 3-4 days. So when you look at all the forecasts on a state page, if those forecasts are made by the National Weather Service, the last day or two will not have a forecast. This isn't ideal, but also keep in mind that specific snow forecasts beyond about three days aren't very accurate most of the time. Here's the Washington State page, showing snow over the next three days:

Washington Snow Forecast

We hope you love this update as much as we do. This really solidifies OpenSnow.com as THE BEST SNOW FORECASTING WEBSITE that allows you to compare forecasts for different mountains and find the best powder. We'll be adding additional local forecasters in Utah and the east coast soon, and hopefully for other areas throughout the season. But even in areas where we don't have local forecasters, you can still see the most accurate snow forecasts and easily compare them across resorts. Way cool!

If you'd like this data on your website, please check out our widgets and see this page for details on our API.

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to our CTO Andrew Murray who engineered some crafty programming to collect this data and display it in an easy-to-read format. 

Thanks for being a fan of OpenSnow.com and telling your snow-loving friends about us. We can't wait to find more powder for you!

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist
Founder & CEO 

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About The Author

Joel Gratz

Founding Meteorologist

Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.

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