No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.
Typical snowfall
154cm
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 →
Elevation
1,266–1,865 m
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 ↗
Cardrona Alpine Resort, in Otago, New Zealand, runs from 1,266 m at the base to 1,865 m at the top. The map shows 71 marked runs and 10 lifts (about 37 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 154 cm of snowfall a season, 1,612th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 11th in New Zealand. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024 (245 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2016 (100 cm). Snowfall days average −3.4°C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 6th of 25 in New Zealand.
How much snow it gets
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Seasonal snowfall
154cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
100cm
The middle winter of the 12: 140 cm. The best: 245 cm.
World rank
1612
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
11
of 26 in New Zealand
Elevation rank
10
Highest to lowest, of 26 in New Zealand. The centre point sits at 1,700 m, 81 m above the national median.
Quality rank
6
of 25 in New Zealand
Temp when snowing
−3.4°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
23%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
10%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
14km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness38
Frequency29
Freedom from rain40
Calm when snowing (model grid)100
The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score leaves out how much snow falls (it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind).
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.
The most snow falls in July. September brings as much as July, or more. In amount, September brings 41 cm, more than the median of 32 cm.
26cmJun
41cmJul
36cmAug
41cmSep
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 154 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016 with 100 cm; the biggest was 2024 with 245 cm (2.5 times as much).
154
100
133
137
107
142
128
213
127
245
191
165
’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
Snowfall each winter (June–September total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Live cameras
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
Map
The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.
Argentina's median ski area gets 348 cm a season — more than Japan's 249 cm, and the highest median of any country we measure with ten or more ski areas. New Zealand's median is 144 cm. The English-language northern-summer ski trip points at the wrong hemisphere's end.