News
By Sam Collentine, Meteorologist Updated 2 months ago October 16, 2024
OpenSnow Forecasts, Explained
Our goal is to create the most accurate weather forecast, period.
The weather forecasts on OpenSnow are updated every hour with a proprietary blend of global weather model data from the ECMWF (European), GFS (American), GDPS (Canadian), and ICON (German) weather models, along with high-resolution weather model data from the HRRR (American) and HRDPS (Canadian) weather models.
The benefits of this approach include:
- Proprietary algorithm to improve the snow-to-liquid ratio, precipitation, temperature, and wind speed calculations for cold, mountain environments.
- Provides the ability to create a forecast for any location (and elevation) to ensure that we are forecasting conditions on the mountain and not for a nearby town.
- An improved method for calculating the snow level (elevation that separates rain from snow) to provide a more realistic forecast, especially at the beginning of storms and during times of intense snowfall.
- Blending multiple global and high-resolution models increases accuracy and confidence in the forecast.
The weather forecast data on OpenSnow can be viewed as hourly forecasts for the next 10 days and day/night forecasts for the next 10 days.
Hourly:
- Snow Forecast
- Snow Ratio
- Snow Level (Rain/Snow Elevation)
- Precipitation Chance
- Precipitation Forecast
- Temperature
- Feels Like Temperature
- Relative Humidity
- Wind Direction, Speed, & Gust
- Cloud Cover
- Lightning Potential
Day & Night:
- Snow Forecast
- Snow Ratio
- Snow Level (Rain/Snow Elevation)
- Precipitation Chance
- Precipitation Forecast
- Temperature
- Feels Like Temperature
- Relative Humidity
- Wind Direction, Speed, & Gust
- Cloud Cover
- Weather Alerts
This blend of proprietary forecast data is updated every hour on OpenSnow for any location, worldwide.
Here is an example of the OpenSnow 10-day snow forecast for Winter Park, Colorado:
- Blue bars show snowfall under 6 inches.
- Orange bars show snowfall over 6 inches.
- Purple bars indicate mixed precip (rain/snow).
Daily alerts are also included to signal upcoming powder days, along with the potential for rain, snow/rain, and high winds. Alert breakdown:
- Orange = Powder (Forecast of 6+ inches from the previous night and current day)
- Green = Rain (Expect rain on all of the mountain)
- Purple = Snow/Rain (Expect a transition from snow to rain on the mountain)
- Yellow = Wind (Wind gusts greater than 45 mph and possible lift closures)
Use the links below to view the 10-day snow forecast for popular ski resorts around the world:
- Breckenridge, Colorado
- Alta, Utah
- Jackson Hole, Wyoming
- Palisades Tahoe, California
- Revelstoke, British Columbia
- Niseko, Japan
- Chamonix, France
- Zermatt, Switzerland
- St. Anton, Austria
- Cortina, Italy
- Portillo, Chile
- Las Leñas, Argentina
- Perisher, Australia
- Coronet Peak, New Zealand
View → OpenSnow Locations
Questions? Send an email to [email protected] and we'll respond within 24 hours. You can also visit our Support Center to view more frequently asked questions and feature guides.
Sam Collentine