What are the snowiest cities in the US?
One of the most populated cities in the country is also one of the snowiest -- although it pales in comparison to the over 400 inches of snow that regularly covers some of the snowiest mountains in the western United States every winter.
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Identifying the snowiest cities in the United States is more complicated than it sounds. It depends not only on population but also on how — and where — snow is officially measured.
When looking at the top 5 U.S. cities by population, Chicago leads the pack with a historical average annual snowfall of 38.8 inches. Next up is New York City with 29.8 inches, followed by Philadelphia, where 23.1 inches of snow typically falls in a season. Other most-populous cities barely get any snow. Dallas comes in at 1.6 inches, and Houston rounds out the top 5 at 0.1 of an inch.
What are the snowiest towns in the US?
To find the snowiest towns in the country, the biggest challenge is to look for places where people accurately measure snow. For official records, snow must be measured by humans, so only one-third of NOAA's U.S. 15,000 climate stations have snow records. Many of those are in Southern states where snow never falls.
To compile this list, each station must have snow records for at least 10 years. The top 10 list below is based on the most recent NOAA historical average annual dataset, covering the years 1991-2020.
1: Crater Lake, Oregon: 463.1 inches
At the top of the list, with 463.1 inches (38.6 feet), is Crater Lake, Oregon. National Park Service (NPS) staff measure the snowfall at the park headquarters. Crater Lake is frequently pounded by atmospheric rivers during the winter. It typically gets snow every month of the year, though the main season is October to May. Surprisingly, the snow measurement is taken at 6,484 feet, much lower than some of the other stations in this list, and one of the lower elevation areas of Crater Lake National Park.
A timelapse of the webcam at Crater Lake headquarters building between Jan. 30 and Feb. 3, 2025. (NPS)
2: Alta, Utah: 458.3 inches
Barely behind Crater Lake is Alta, Utah, with 458.3 inches (38.2 feet). The fourth ski chairlift built in the country, Alta has been a popular ski resort since 1938. The resort is also famous for scientific research into avalanche mitigation. It sits at an elevation of 8,710 feet.
Clayton Hamblin clears almost two feet of new snow from some condominiums May 11, 2005 in Alta, Utah.(George Frey/Getty Images)
3: Soda Springs, California: 445 inches
Twenty miles northwest of Lake Tahoe, the town of Soda Springs, California, is nestled among several major ski resorts, including Donner Ski Ranch, Boreal Mountain, Sugar Bowl Resort and Palisades Tahoe. The observation site at Soda Springs, located at an elevation of 6,887 feet, receives 445 inches (37.1 feet) of snow annually.
A webcam at Soda Springs, California shows heavy snow on Jan. 25, 2017. (NPS)
4: Crested Butte, Colorado: 389 inches
A weather station at 9,605 feet in elevation near Crested Butte, a town and ski resort in the Colorado mountains, gets 389 inches (32.4 feet) of snow, on average, each season. The local ski slope measures closer to 236 inches per year but has more than 1,500 acres of skiable terrain.
Michelle and Greg Pearson walk past huge snow drifts outside of their rented house that seems buried in snow on their way to dinner on Jan. 11, 2017 in Crested Butte, Colorado. Crested Butte has been inundated with more than 100 inches of snow in the past days. More snow is expected in the upcoming days. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
5: Climax, Colorado: 294.7 inches
Near the nearly-abandoned former mining town of Climax, Colorado, at 11,341 feet in elevation on the Continental Divide, an intrepid weather observer measures 294.7 inches (24.6 feet) of snow each year on average. It's the highest mountain on this list and one of the highest weather stations crewed by humans in the U.S. Climax is about 70 miles southwest of Denver.
6: Snake River, Wyoming: 293.6 inches
The average annual snowfall in the mountains about 35 miles north of Jackson, Wyoming, at 6,882 feet in elevation, is 293.6 inches (24.5 feet) per winter. Nearby ski slopes include Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee and Snow King.
A ski lift in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 2016. (Sam Mellish / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)
7: Mt. Washington, New Hampshire: 281.8 inches
Home to "The World's Worst Weather" and the Northern Hemisphere's surface wind speed record, Mount Washington is staffed only by researchers, though the public can visit when the weather isn't too bad. While they have recorded snow every month of the year, Mount Washington has already seen more than 100 inches of snow this season, as of mid-December, compared to a historical average of 78.6 inches by this time on the calendar.
At 6,267 feet, Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeast but falls short of the highest mountain east of the Mississippi, which is Mount Mitchell, North Carolina, at 6,684 feet.
Rime ice hangs on the sign denoting the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire on Feb. 9, 2023. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
8: Holden Village, Washington: 273.7 inches
Formerly a copper mining outfit, Holden Village is a town in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. Sitting at only 3,218 feet in elevation, it's the shortest mountain on the list. The location, about 90 miles northeast of Seattle, gets 273.7 inches (22.8 feet) of snow each winter, typically between November and March.
Holden Village was a victim of the recent flooding in Washington and closed on Dec. 12 due to mudslides and flooding.
9: Mt. Mansfield, Vermont: 234.9 inches
Mount Mansfield, Vermont, is only the second location in the eastern U.S. that cracks the top 10 snowiest locations list. The ski resort, which claims Mount Mansfield as one of its twin peaks, Stowe Resort, is having a blockbuster season this year, with more than 100 inches racked up this fall and 5 feet on the ground as of mid-December - a new record for the last 70 years.
Winter hikers Michael Kloeti, red coat, and Peter Case, take off their snowshoes after a winter hike in Stowe, Vermont., on Mar., 14, 2023. The two men hiked about five hours visiting a cabin on a hiking trail on the side of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest peak. Kloeti said "it was awesome." (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)
10: Government Camp, Oregon: 232.5 inches
A weather station at the base of Mount Hood, Oregon, is in the town of Government Camp, so-named because the U.S. Cavalry troops abandoned wagons and supplies there in 1849. This location averages 232.5 inches (19.4 feet) per year. Mount Hood is home to the Timberline Lodge ski area, which unofficially gets more than 400 inches of snow per season, as well as Mount Hood Meadows and other resorts. The elevation at Government Camp is only 3,980 feet -- one of the lower towns on the list, while Mount Hood rises to 11,249 feet.
The town of Government Camp is seen at the base of Mount Hood, Oregon (Oregon's Mt. Hood Territory)
A note about Alaska
It may snow a lot in Alaska, but the state has few staffed weather stations to report the data. For the purposes of this list, Alaska weather stations were excluded. If Alaska were incorporated into the top 10 list, Mt. Mansfield and Government Camp would drop out. Valdez, Alaska, would be number 5 with 325.3 inches, and Whitter, Alaska, would round out the top 10 at 268.2 inches.
What about lake-effect snow?
Although many lake-effect-favored towns get hundreds of inches of snow each year, there aren't very many weather stations where snow is officially measured in those regions, and it's hard for them to compete against the extreme snow amounts that are measured in the western U.S. While they didn't make the top 10, a weather station near Hooker, New York, measures 227.7 inches per year and one at Sherman, New York gets 224.5 inches each season.
Honorable mentions for unofficial records
Since official snow records are limited to places where humans measure snow, some notable places don't appear on the list. This includes some ski slopes, which are not all represented in the NOAA data, and other mountaintops where snow is estimated but is not part of the official record.
There are two ski resorts and one mountain that claim to beat all historical average annual snowfalls featured above — and by quite a bit. While the measurements aren't official, one of them could be the snow king of the United States.
Alyeska Resort in Alaska, which claims to be the "best, most reliable snow in America," measures a historical average annual snowfall of 669 inches (55.8 feet). The resort, which opened in 1954, gets its name from an Aleut word meaning "great land of the white to the east," a nod to how much snow falls there.
Another extreme snowfall location — although some data is missing — is Paradise, Washington, on Mount Rainier. The National Park Service says that the average snowfall there is 639 inches (53.3 feet), and its record high was the 1971-1972 season, which provided 1,122 inches (93.5 feet)
Another extreme snowfall location, Mount Baker, a ski slope in Washington, claims a 10-year average of 633.6 inches (52.8 feet), with a maximum seasonal total of 1,140 inches (95 feet) in the 1998-1999 winter season, which was certified by NOAA as a world record at the time but is not recognized by the World Meteorological Organization.
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