California Snow Forecast
Live from the National Weather Service · all 28 California ski areas · updates automatically
Loading the current National Weather Service snowfall forecast…
Forecast snowfall for the next 24 hours, 3 days and 7 days at every lift-served ski area in California, pulled live from the NWS public forecast API. Sorted by the biggest seven-day total.
California snow forecast by resort
| Resort | Region | 24 hr | 3 day | 7 day |
|---|
Figures are NWS quantitative snowfall forecasts for the grid square containing each resort’s base area, converted from millimetres to inches. Snowfall at the summit is often considerably higher.
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We will email you when the forecast shows six inches or more at a California resort. Free, occasional, and only when there is something worth driving for.
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Resorts covered
Every lift-served ski area in California, grouped by region:
Lake Tahoe (13): Palisades Tahoe, Alpine Meadows, Northstar California, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Sugar Bowl, Homewood, Tahoe Donner, Soda Springs, Boreal, Donner Ski Ranch, Granlibakken
Eastern Sierra (2): Mammoth Mountain, June Mountain
Central Sierra (5): Bear Valley, Dodge Ridge, Badger Pass, China Peak, Alta Sierra
Southern California (6): Snow Summit, Bear Mountain, Snow Valley, Mountain High, Mt. Baldy, Mt. Waterman
Northern California (2): Mt. Shasta Ski Park, Coppervale
How to read a snow forecast
Three things are worth knowing before you plan a drive around these numbers.
Base area, not summit
Each figure is for the grid square containing the resort’s base. Summits sit one to three thousand feet higher and routinely get considerably more, and a storm that falls as rain at a 6,200-foot base can be snow the whole way down at Kirkwood’s 7,800-foot one.
Days one to three are the real forecast
Beyond about 72 hours, treat the numbers as a signal that a storm cycle is coming rather than a quantity to trust. The seven-day column is for spotting a pattern, not for booking.
Forecast snow is not conditions
This page says nothing about base depth, which lifts are running, or whether the road is open. In California the road often matters more than the snow — check chain control before any storm-day drive.
California snow forecast — frequently asked questions
Where does this snow forecast come from?
The National Weather Service, direct from its public api.weather.gov feed. Every figure is the NWS quantitative snowfall forecast for the grid square containing that resort's base area, converted from millimetres to inches. It is the same data the NWS publishes on weather.gov, pulled live when you load this page — not a number someone typed in.
How often does it update?
Every time you load the page, with results cached for 30 minutes to avoid hammering a public service. The NWS itself refreshes its gridded forecasts several times a day.
Is this the same as snow already on the ground?
No, and the distinction matters. This is forecast snowfall for the days ahead, not current base depth or conditions. For what is actually on the mountain right now, check the resort's own snow report — every resort is linked from our California ski resort map.
Why does a resort sometimes show no forecast?
The NWS occasionally returns no snowfall grid for a location, and the service has brief outages. A resort showing a dash means the data was unavailable at that moment, not that no snow is expected. Reload in a few minutes.
How accurate are seven-day snow forecasts?
Days one to three are reasonably reliable. Days four to seven are directional — useful for spotting that a storm cycle is coming, not for deciding which morning to drive. Mountain snowfall also varies enormously with elevation and aspect within a single grid square, so treat these as the forecast for the base area rather than the summit.
What is a powder alert?
An email we send when the forecast shows meaningful snow — roughly six inches or more — at a California resort in the next few days. It is free, occasional, and only goes out when there is actually something worth driving for.
Forecast data from the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov), a public US government service. SnoCal is not affiliated with the NWS. Data is fetched directly by your browser and cached for 30 minutes. Forecasts are estimates and conditions change — always check the resort and Caltrans before travelling.