Snowiest Places in United States

Heaviest Snowfall

Five weather stations that recorded snowfall in the United States from 1991 to 2020, report annual totals that average over 300 inches or 25 feet (7.6 metres). At the top of the list for deep snow is Oregon's Crater Lake, which averages 463 inches, or nearly 39 feet of fresh snow a year. That snowfall was measured at 6,485 feet (1,977 metres) elevation near the south rim of Crater Lake.

Many extremely snowy places are in remote, uninhabited locations like the peak of Mt Washington in New Hampshire or the South Entrance to Yellowstone Park in Wyoming.

Towns where it snows a lot include, not surprisingly, mountain ski resorts such as Alta in Utah and Winter Park in Colorado. Other really snowy small communities are scattered from Alaska to California to New York. Examples are Valdez, a little seaside city on the Alaskan panhandle. Another, Truckee, California sits high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And Sherman is a rural village tucked between Lake Erie and Chautauqua Lake in New York state.

Average annual snowfall for places that receive over 200 inches of snow a year

Location	Inch­es	Cen­ti­me­tres
Crater Lake Park Headquarters, Oregon	463.1	1176.3
Alta, Utah	458.3	1164.1
Soda Springs, California	445.0	1130.3
Gothic, Colorado	389.0	988.1
Valdez, Alaska	325.3	826.3
Climax Mine, Colorado	294.7	748.5
Yellowstone Park South Entrance, Wyoming	293.6	745.7
Mt Washington, New Hampshire	281.8	715.8
Holden Village, Washington	273.7	695.2
Whittier, Alaska	268.2	681.2
Main Bay, Alaska	261.8	665.0
Haines Highway border crossing, Alaska	245.1	622.6
Mount Mansfield Peak, Vermont	234.9	596.6
Government Camp, Oregon	232.5	590.6
Lookout State Forest, Copenhagen, New York	227.7	578.4
Skyline Mine, Scofield, Utah	225.4	572.5
Sherman, New York	224.5	570.2
Lodgepole, California	220.4	559.8
Alyeska, Alaska	214.5	544.8
Winter Park, Colorado	214.0	543.6
Cooke City, Montana	213.1	541.3
Herman, Michigan	207.8	527.8
Truckee, California	206.6	524.8
West Turin, New York	203.1	515.9
Crested Butte, Colorado	203.0	515.6

Links in the table take you to more detailed information on snowfall, snowstorms and snow accumulation for the location.

The snowfall data here are compiled from 5,659 weather stations in the US that contributed quality data over the 30-year-period from 1991 to 2020 for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Yet many exceptionally snowy places don't have any official recording of the amount of snow they get. An indication of how snowy some extreme places really are can be gleaned from older data collected on Mount Rainier in Washington state. While the Paradise Ranger Station located near alpine on the south flank of Rainier hasn't measured snow more recently, it does have records for 1981 to 2010. That's when snowfall on the mountain averaged 671 inches (1,704 centimetres) a year. Some years during that time barely received 400 inches while others had double that. The snowiest year on record at the Paradise Station was 1971, when it snowed an enormous 1,105.5 inches, that's 92 feet or 28 metres.

Most Days With Fresh Snow

The places where it snows most often typically see over 90 days a year with new snow. Topping the list is Mt Washington in New Hampshire where the summit averages 124 days annually with at least a dusting of new snow.

Average number of days a year with at least 0.1 inches (0.25 centimetres) snowfall

Place	Days
Mt Washington, New Hampshire	124
Gothic, Colorado	106
Climax Mine, Colorado	103
Crater Lake Park Headquarters, Oregon	101
Negaunee, Michigan	93
Utqiagvik, Alaska	92
Yellowstone Park South Entrance, Wyoming	92
Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming	92
Cooke City, Montana	91
Leadville, Colorado	90
Mathewson State Forest, Vermont	88
Mount Mansfield Peak, Vermont	87
Sidnaw, Michigan	87
Herman, Michigan	86
Alta, Utah	85
Valdez, Alaska	84
Otsego Lake, Michigan	83
Saint Paul Island, Alaska	83
Bergland, Michigan	83
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan	81
Lookout State Forest, Copenhagen, New York	81
Breckenridge, Colorado	81
Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado	80

Most Frequent Snowstorms

Of course the snowiest places experience an unusual number of heavy snowstorms. Crater Lake, Oregon and Alta, Utah both average 37 days a year when 5 inches or more of snow falls on the landscape. In a typical year the new snow amounts to at least 10 inches on 11 of those days at Crater Lake and on 15 days at Alta.

Average number of days a year with at least 5 inches (12.7 centimetres) snowfall

Place	Days
Alta, Utah	37
Crater Lake Park Headquarters, Oregon	37
Soda Springs, California	29
Gothic, Colorado	28
Valdez, Alaska	23
Yellowstone Park South Entrance, Wyoming	21
Climax Mine, Colorado	20
Holden Village, Washington	20
Main Bay, Alaska	19
Whittier, Alaska	18
Skyline Mine, Scofield, Utah	18
Haines Highway border crossing, Alaska	17
Lodgepole, California	17
Government Camp, Oregon	17
Sherman, New York	16
Truckee, California	16
Lemolo Lake, Oregon	16
Mt Washington, New Hampshire	15