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How every week has gone at each mountain over the last twenty winters. Tap the chart to read a week, or pick one below. Holiday weeks are marked.

Every week at a glance

The share of each week's days with fresh snow over the last twenty winters: darker is more. Grey where the lifts ran that week in fewer than 14 of 20 winters and fewer than 4 of the last 5, empty where they almost never do.

How many of each week's days had clear skies (under 30% cloud from 9 AM to 4 PM, the same test as the calls) over the last twenty winters, on the same scale as fresh snow. Mid-January is the clearest stretch, late December the cloudiest. Weeks when the lifts rarely run are greyed.

Pick a week

Tap a week to see the eight mountains ranked by fresh-snow days that week. Mountains on one snow station share a row.

Dec 22–31 · Christmas

Most fresh-snow days this week: Sierra-at-Tahoe and Mt. Rose, 31% of days (62 of 200).

Sierra-at-TahoeSouth Lake Tahoe

31%of days fresh snow

Fresh31%Clear24%

Fresh snow in 16 of 20 winters · 34 big days · lifts in 19 of 20 winters (4 of the last 5)

Mt. RoseNorth Lake Tahoe & Truckee

31%of days fresh snow

Fresh31%Clear19%

Fresh snow in 16 of 20 winters · 30 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Sugar Bowl closeNorth Lake Tahoe & Truckee

30%of days fresh snow

Fresh30%Clear22%

Fresh snow in 16 of 20 winters · 32 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Kirkwood closeSouth Lake Tahoe

30%of days fresh snow

Fresh30%Clear24%

Fresh snow in 17 of 20 winters · 27 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Palisades closeNorth Lake Tahoe & Truckee

28%of days fresh snow

Fresh28%Clear22%

Fresh snow in 15 of 20 winters · 27 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Heavenly closeSouth Lake Tahoe

28%of days fresh snow

Fresh28%Clear21%

Fresh snow in 15 of 20 winters · 27 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Diamond Peak closeNorth Lake Tahoe & Truckee

28%of days fresh snow

Fresh28%Clear19%

Fresh snow in 15 of 20 winters · 18 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Northstar closeNorth Lake Tahoe & Truckee

28%of days fresh snow

Fresh28%Clear22%

Fresh snow in 16 of 20 winters · 32 big days · lifts in 20 of 20 winters (5 of the last 5)

Open the Dec 22–31 page
20 winters: openings and records
What these numbers mean
  • Each week is the same dates every year: the 1st–7th, 8th–14th, 15th–21st, and the 22nd to month end. Thanksgiving, MLK Day and Presidents' Day always land in the weeks marked.
  • Comparing weeks: the last week of each month runs 7 to 10 days, so weeks are compared by the share of their days with fresh snow (a percentage of the days), never by a count that grows with the week's length. "In 13 of 20 winters" describes one week and is true for it, but isn't used to rank weeks. The same goes for the best shot at a Bluebird day: Bluebird days per lift day.
  • Fresh snow: the federal SNOTEL station near the mountain gained about 4" or more in 48 hours (3" when it stayed below freezing, or it caught heavy, cold snow that packed down), the same test Snowcall uses every morning. A big day is 8" or more.
  • Lifts running: open at least 3 days of the week, from resort announcements and news, so approximate. A week counts at a mountain when that happened in 14 of the 20 winters, or in 4 of the last 5: snowmaking has moved some openings earlier, so recent winters say more about opening weeks than older ones. For some winters, mostly before 2016, no opening or closing day could be found; those use that mountain's 2016-26 average.
  • Percentages are shares of days, rounded to whole numbers. Twenty winters of one week is about 140 days, so two mountains within a few points of each other are a near-tie (marked "close" when within 5). Counts of winters stay counts ("13 of 20"), since the 20 shows how small the sample is.
  • Clear skies: days with under 30% cloud from 9 AM to 4 PM, the same test the calls use, over all of the week's days in every winter. Past skies come from the ERA5 weather record, which sees the whole sky, so a day when the summit sat above valley fog can count as cloudy. Most weeks sit within a few days of each other; mid-January stands out as the clearest.
  • New snow is how much deeper the station got that week; snow settles, so it runs a little under what fell. On the ground is the station's depth at the start of the week, not the resort's base.
  • What the days were like: each lift day's call, the same five words as the home page, over every winter. Bluebird is rare everywhere, so it's also counted in winters: did that week have at least one Bluebird day while the lifts ran? Past days use a reconstruction of the sky (the ERA5 weather record), not the forecast the app had that morning.
  • Day type squares: with Day type on, each winter's square shows its best day that week, in call order (Bluebird, Powder, Storm, Bluebird Groomer, Quiet).
  • Twenty winters is still a small sample: a pattern, not a forecast. Any week can be dry.

Snow data: USDA NRCS SNOTEL, winters 2006-07 to 2025-26. Rule v3.3. Sky history: contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Sky history: contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Snow from USDA NRCS SNOTEL; forecasts from the National Weather Service. Ski area names are trademarks of their respective owners. Snowcall is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by them.