“How much does it snow” is the first question asked about a resort, and the worst answered. Resort websites and aggregators show declared totals, added up who knows how, sometimes per year, sometimes per season, often without saying at what altitude. You read records on one side and averages on the other, and nothing is comparable.
We took another route. Météo-France publishes, as open data, the daily readings of its stations — including two columns that interest us: the snow depth on the ground measured at 6 am, and the fresh snow fallen in 24 h. We match each resort to the station that describes it best, provided it is within 25 km, inside the area’s altitude range, and lines up at least ten complete winters. Then we compute.
Four stations, from the Alps to the Pyrenees
Les Grands Montets, above Argentière in the Chamonix valley, shares with La Flégère the Météo-France station on its page (AIGUILLES ROUGES-NIVOSE, 2,365 m). Average snowfall per winter: n/a; days of snowfall per winter: n/a (complete winters measured: n/a). The biggest snowfall in its series: n/a in 24 hours (winter n/a).
Val Thorens (station on the page: Orelle, 2,356 m): 526 cm a winter on average; days of snowfall: 60 (winters measured: 17). Record: 70 cm in a day (winter 2003-2004). Les Menuires, in the same valley, is described by the station on its own page (altitude: 2,283 m): 559 cm a winter.
Piau-Engaly, in the Pyrenees (station: Piau, 1,860 m): 536 cm a winter; days of snowfall: 58 (winters measured: 13). This station describes the whole upper Aure valley and the Tourmalet — Piau-Engaly, La Mongie, Barèges, Luz-Ardiden, Peyragudes, Gavarnie. Record: 99 cm in a day (winter 2012-2013). The central Pyrenees receive as much snow as the Alps; they keep it less long.
Flaine (station: Flaine, 1,620 m): 532 cm a winter; days of snowfall: 51 (winters measured: 10). Biggest 24-hour snowfall: 55 cm — set against the total, it tells you whether a station gets its snow regularly or in storms.
What these figures do not say: what stays
Six metres of fallen snow does not make six metres on the ground. Snow settles, melts in thaws, blows off the ridges. Our pages therefore also give the measure of what stays: the number of days a winter the station measured at least 30 cm on the ground, the benchmark for groomed-piste skiing.
There, the ranking changes: the highest stations move ahead. Days a winter at 30 cm or more on the ground, station by station: Belle Plagne and Les Contamines, both matched to the Grande Parei automatic station (2,260 m): 134; Les Grands Montets: 102; the Domaine du Tourmalet, below the Lac d’Ardiden automatic station (2,445 m): 133; Val Thorens: 131; Val-d’Isère: 131; Bonneval-sur-Arc: 131 — at those altitudes the snow lies from 1 December to 15 April almost without interruption.
Why not every page has a snowfall figure
Resort pages published: 315. Matched to a station that measures snow on the ground: 262; to one that also measures fresh snow: 178. The difference is the automatic high-altitude stations, which measure depth by ultrasound but not fresh snow, which needs an observer. Where the station keeps no snowfall series, the page says so, rather than leaving a blank you would take for an omission.
And the others have no station meeting our rule. They have no figure, and the page explains why — a station borrowed from the next range would be a wrong figure.
How to read a resort page
On each “snow report” page, the block “Snow actually measured” gives, fortnight by fortnight, the average depth on the ground and the share of days at 30 cm or more; then the best and worst winter of the series; then, below, the snowfall: average total, days of snowfall, biggest 24-hour fall and its winter, snowiest and leanest winter. The station’s name, altitude and distance are written — and altitude matters: a station at 1,200 m does not describe the top of an area at 2,500.
Out of season, it is the only figure-based answer you can give to “is there snow”. In season, the daily report takes over.
