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.
| Date | Weather | Snow (cm) | Low / high (°C) | Wind (km/h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 10 Nov | Partly cloudy | 0 | 3 to 16 | 16 |
| Wed 11 Nov | Drizzle | 0 | 8 to 18 | 13 |
| Thu 12 Nov | Fog | 0 | 7 to 19 | 15 |
| Fri 13 Nov | Drizzle | 0 | 10 to 19 | 22 |
| Sat 14 Nov | Thunderstorm | 0 | 8 to 17 | 19 |
| Sun 15 Nov | Drizzle | 0 | −1 to 11 | 18 |
| Mon 16 Nov | Snow showers | 1 | −3 to 6 | 28 |
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
Mount Hotham, in Australia, runs from 1,449 m at the base to 1,856 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 5.1 km across, with 106 marked runs and 14 lifts (about 36 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 163 cm of snowfall a season, 1,503rd (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 6th in Australia. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017 (354 cm), brought more than 6 times as much as the leanest, 2015 (54 cm). Snowfall days average −1.5°C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 4th of 10 in Australia.
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.
64% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east; plenty of the terrain faces the sun as well, so the lean is modest.
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.
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
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
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).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Falls Creek | 17.0 km | 172 cm | 1401 |
The most snow falls in July. September brings 42% of July’s snowfall.
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 163 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015 with 54 cm; the biggest was 2017 with 354 cm (6.6 times as much).
Snowfall each winter (June–September total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.
Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗
Japan vs elsewhere · 7 Sep 2026
Is Japan's Snow Really Better Than Australia's? Mostly, It Is the RainWe measured snow quality at 456 ski areas. All ten Australian ones land in the bottom 75. Perisher is 388th and Niseko is 26th — a far wider gap than the snowfall figures suggest, and it is made of rain.