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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 10 Nov | Showers | 0 | 3 to 7 | 7 |
| Wed 11 Nov | Showers | 0 | 4 to 7 | 8 |
| Thu 12 Nov | Rain | 0 | 2 to 5 | 8 |
| Fri 13 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 2 to 8 | 11 |
| Sat 14 Nov | Fog | 0 | 0 to 7 | 10 |
| Sun 15 Nov | Rain | 0 | 0 to 5 | 11 |
| Mon 16 Nov | Snow | 15 | 0 to 5 | 13 |
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
Puy-Saint-Vincent, in France, runs from 1,411 m at the base to 2,664 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 5.1 km across, with 74 marked runs and 12 lifts (about 42 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 269 cm of snowfall a season, 627th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 90th in France. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (485 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2018/19 (161 cm). December brings as much snow as January here (70 and 70 cm on average).
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.
97% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
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.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pelvoux-Vallouise | 5.1 km | 269 cmsame grid cell | 627 |
| Serre Chevalier | 14.0 km | 285 cm | 545 |
| Orcières Merlette | 16.0 km | 327 cm | 370 |
| Arvieux | 22.0 km | 199 cm | 1158 |
| Serre Eyraud | 22.0 km | 244 cm | 772 |
The most snow falls in December. March brings 97% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in France (77%). In amount, March brings 68 cm, more than the median of 55 cm.
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 269 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2018/19 with 161 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 485 cm (3.0 times as much). For 26% of the 244 ski areas in France the leanest winter was 2016/17; 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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