I often see the question asked, “how do you guys forecast snow?” I’ll cut to the chase and show you the forecasts I use.
Weather models:
This is the most complicated of the bunch so I’ll show you how to use these models to actually show snow forecast. If you don’t want to bother, you can skip this section and use the straightforward methods.
First, go to https://weather.cod.edu/forecast/
On this page you’ll see a bunch of weather models to choose from. Usually just pick GFS or NAM. Also as a heads up, NAM-NEST usually crazily over-estimates snowfall, don’t know why.
Anyways, click on your model, and then it’ll give you an opportunity to click on a region. It’s also worth noting the model runs on the left side. The model can take time to complete running so as a result you may not be able to see the full time range of the model. If you want to look at a previous model run, simply click on it.
Looking at the sidebar, you can see a few useful options:
Click whichever of these you want to use.
Perfect, now use the slider up top to move the date. Voila. Finally I can stop writing this section.
Oh, there’s also other models, like the European model (ECWMF). Finding sites that work well with it is a royal pain though. The one ECWMF site I love is https://windy.com. It has a bit of a learning curve but after half a hour of use, it’s great.
Easier forecasts to use:
Opensnow
Opensnow is the bread and butter of snow forecasts and is incredibly simple to use. Just head over to https://opensnow.com and search for your resort. Creating an account allows you to bookmark a bunch of resorts on your own home page, as well as the mobile app. You get a range of 5 days for free, and a premium subscription gets you 10. It averages out multiple models and is pretty accurate. One small thing to note is that all snowfall after 4pm (when lifts usually close) is added onto the next day’s total.
Snow-Forecast.com
Snow-Forecast.com is a Europe based site and is quite similar to opensnow in some ways, but provides much more data. Logon to the website and enter your resort name in the searchbar in the top right.
The layout looks a bit intimidating at first but once you get used to it, it’s very useful, perhaps the most useful of all of these tools.
The free version allows you to get a 5–6 day range, and the premium subscription (about $30 a year) gets you 12 days.
Creating a free account doesn’t get you much on the website version but allows you to bookmark resorts on the app.
Oh, also, there’s a bug where you can view 12 days on the mobile app by just switching elevations.
Weather Underground
wunderground is very mediocre. I used to love it and use it as my main forecast, but it definitely has some flaws. For starters, you’re not going to get a high elevation forecast with this. At best you’re getting a base area forecast, and often you won’t even get that.
Secondly, it can be a buggy disaster. No data for Thursday? Yeah it’s just broken again, I dunno.
Despite these problems, it is useful. It gives cloud cover percentages and a percent chance of precipitation by hour, which can be very useful.
In conclusion
Now you have a few more websites to refresh during the day at your workplace/school.
