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
26 km/h
Elevation
340–1,112 m
Across
4.5 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.Snow report on the official site ↗
7-day outlook
Date
Weather
Snow (cm)
Low / high (°C)
Wind (km/h)
Mon 9 Nov
Drizzle
0
2 to 5
26
Tue 10 Nov
Snow
0
1 to 6
28
Wed 11 Nov
Snow
2
−1 to 2
27
Thu 12 Nov
Snow
6
−1 to 2
7
Fri 13 Nov
Snow
2
0 to 1
5
Sat 14 Nov
Snow showers
4
−2 to 0
9
Sun 15 Nov
Snow showers
6
−1 to −1
9
Score breakdown
Fresh (48h)1/40
Forecast (24h)1/25
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
Smugglers' Notch Resort, in United States, runs from 340 m at the base to 1,112 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 4.5 km across, with 110 marked runs and 9 lifts (about 49 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 173 cm of snowfall a season, 1,389th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 130th in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2022/23 (212 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (103 cm). March still brings 41 cm on average, close to January, its snowiest month.
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
110
Run length
49km
Lifts
9
Vertical
772m
Top 1,112 m · base 340 m
Run map
EasyIntermediateAdvancedExpertFreerideLift
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 map2.3 km
Steepest pitch41°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs13°
Which way the slopes face
North55%
East7%
South2%
West36%
62% 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.
The most snow falls in January. March brings 85% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in the United States (85%). In amount, March brings 41 cm, more than the median of 30 cm.
42cmDec
48cmJan
42cmFeb
41cmMar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 173 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 103 cm; the biggest was 2022/23 with 212 cm (2.1 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.