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 →
Snow 24h
0 cm
Next 24h
0 cm
Temperature
1°C
Max wind
30 km/h
Elevation
1,743–2,486 m
Across
6.5 km
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.
7-day outlook
Date
Weather
Snow (cm)
Low / high (°C)
Wind (km/h)
Mon 9 Nov
Cloudy
0
−1 to 5
26
Tue 10 Nov
Snow
0
−1 to 3
30
Wed 11 Nov
Cloudy
0
1 to 10
20
Thu 12 Nov
Cloudy
0
2 to 12
7
Fri 13 Nov
Cloudy
0
0 to 10
10
Sat 14 Nov
Snow
2
−2 to 7
9
Sun 15 Nov
Drizzle
0
−7 to 3
9
Score breakdown
Fresh (48h)0/40
Forecast (24h)1/25
Snow quality4/20
Wind3/10
Base2/5
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
Discovery Ski Area, in United States, runs from 1,743 m at the base to 2,486 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 6.5 km across, with 50 marked runs and 8 lifts (about 41 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 192 cm of snowfall a season, 1,230th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 98th in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (329 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2014/15 (122 cm). December brings as much snow as January here (50 and 37 cm on average).
Runs and lifts
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.
Marked runs
50
Run length
41km
Lifts
8
Vertical
743m
Top 2,486 m · base 1,743 m
Run map
NoviceEasyIntermediateAdvancedLift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.Slope shape, difficulty and lift types
The shape of the mountain
Longest run on the map2.0 km
Steepest pitch30°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs11.8°
Which way the slopes face
North34%
East11%
South25%
West30%
Only 45% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. The most common direction is north (34%).
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
192cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
122cm
The middle winter of the 12: 183 cm. The best: 329 cm.
World rank
1230
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
98
of 534 in United States
Elevation rank
81
Highest to lowest, of 534 in United States. The centre point sits at 2,454 m, 1,926 m above the national median.
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
The most snow falls in February. March brings as much as January, or more. In amount, March brings 47 cm, more than the median of 30 cm.
50cmDec
37cmJan
58cmFeb
47cmMar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 192 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2014/15 with 122 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 329 cm (2.7 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.
Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.