In the Southwest and elsewhere, much of the snow we get is in the mountains or at higher elevations. What’s the best way to determine when it’s going to snow? And where?
Snow and ski apps
Thankfully, there are quite a few snow and ski apps available. Most of these are designed for skiers to make plans. But even if we don’t ski, these apps can come in handy if we want to head to the mountains for some holiday snow.
OpenSnow (iOS only) is a free app that offers snow forecasts, snow reports, map overlays and, of course, ski conditions. The layout is easy to navigate.
Some of the features are locked and require an in-app purchase. The All-Access 1-Year Subscription is $19.99. This unlocks the map overlays and longer projected forecasts, the estimated snow depth map and email notifications.
Snow Stake Cams
One exciting feature is snow cams showing live camera footage of various areas.
Browse mountains
On the main menu under Browse Mountains, you can perform a search on nearby mountains, search by name or region, or by season pass.
For Los Angeles, one of the closest places that it shows is Mountain High, which is only about an hour north of Los Angeles. This doesn’t always get snow, but once it does, you will sometimes meet people who ski and surf on the same day. In the spring, you can sometimes even see people skiing down Mountain High in bikinis.
Snow forecasts
Of course, everyone wants to see the snow forecasts. This is broken down into several areas, including a 10-Day Forecast. The free version will give you the next five days, whereas The All-Access 1-Year Subscription will unlock the full 10-day forecast.
There are several ways to search including closest, forecasts, by cameras, snow reports and temperature. You can search by “All Cams” as well, but this too requires a subscription.
The OpenSnow app is easy to navigate
The app is intuitive and easy to navigate. Upon downloading, I found snow reports in a matter of seconds without having to wonder how to use them. Whether skiing or not, this app for iOS can give you a lot of information on snow and weather conditions nearby and globally.
