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
3°C
Max wind
29 km/h
Elevation
610–1,199 m
Across
3.2 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
Snow
0
2 to 5
22
Tue 10 Nov
Fog
0
1 to 5
29
Wed 11 Nov
Snow
1
−1 to 2
19
Thu 12 Nov
Snow
1
0 to 1
8
Fri 13 Nov
Snow
0
0 to 1
6
Sat 14 Nov
Snow showers
5
−3 to 0
12
Sun 15 Nov
Snow showers
2
−3 to −1
12
Score breakdown
Fresh (48h)0/40
Forecast (24h)0/25
Snow quality0/20
Wind6/10
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
Pico Mountain Resort, in United States, runs from 610 m at the base to 1,199 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 3.2 km across, with 68 marked runs and 7 lifts (about 31 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 190th in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2022/23 (203 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (65 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 44 cm.
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
68
Run length
31km
Lifts
7
Vertical
589m
Top 1,199 m · base 610 m
Run map
EasyIntermediateAdvancedOtherLift
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 map1.5 km
Steepest pitch26°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs11.1°
Which way the slopes face
North81%
East7%
South1%
West11%
88% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
The most snow falls in January. March brings 80% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in the United States (85%). In amount, March brings 35 cm, more than the median of 30 cm.
37cmDec
44cmJan
39cmFeb
35cmMar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 154 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 65 cm; the biggest was 2022/23 with 203 cm (3.1 times as much).
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.