A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →
Updated: 10 Nov 2026, 12:15
We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified. Snow report on the official site ↗
| Date | Weather | Snow (cm) | Low / high (°C) | Wind (km/h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 9 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 1 to 11 | 13 |
| Tue 10 Nov | Clear | 0 | 3 to 13 | 15 |
| Wed 11 Nov | Clear | 0 | 2 to 12 | 18 |
| Thu 12 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | −1 to 10 | 21 |
| Fri 13 Nov | Snow showers | 18 | −3 to 5 | 37 |
| Sat 14 Nov | Snow showers | 22 | −6 to −2 | 19 |
| Sun 15 Nov | Snow | 3 | −9 to 0 | 10 |
The five add up to the 100-point Powder Score: more fresh snow, more on the way and colder air all push it up. How we measure
Bear Valley, in United States, runs from 2,024 m at the base to 2,583 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 5.1 km across, with 45 marked runs and 8 lifts (about 27 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 602 cm of snowfall a season, 42nd of 3,069 worldwide and 3rd in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2022/23 (1,234 cm), brought more than 8 times as much as the leanest, 2014/15 (140 cm). March is usually the snowiest month, with about 160 cm.
The nearest city of any size is Reno, about 118 km away in a straight line.
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Only 42% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. The most common direction is west (40%).
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkwood Mountain Resort | 21.0 km | 563 cm | 56 |
| Leland Snowplay | 29.0 km | 437 cm | 122 |
| Dodge Ridge Ski Area | 34.0 km | 562 cm | 57 |
| Sierra-at-Tahoe Ski Resort | 35.0 km | 548 cm | 66 |
The most snow falls in March. March brings as much as January, or more. In amount, March brings 160 cm, more than the median of 30 cm.
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 602 cm, and 8 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2014/15 with 140 cm; the biggest was 2022/23 with 1,234 cm (8.8 times as much). For 33% of the 534 ski areas in the United States the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗
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