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Snowiest Places in the U.S.

Posted on by MichaelV (Otsego)

Below are the snowiest places in the U.S. – snowfall amounts are averages not records.  Mt. Rainier has recorded over 1200 inches (102 feet) of snow which fell between February 19, 1971, and February 18, 1972. That is equal to the height of a 10-story building!

 

Weather stations with highest snowfall in the United States by state,
1985-2015
State Place Average annual snowfall elevation
1. Washington Mt. Rainier 645.5 inches (1,640 cm) 5,430 feet (1,660 m)
2. Utah Alta 456.9 inches (1,161 cm) 8,730 feet (2,660 m)
3. Oregon Crater Lake 453.4 inches (1,152 cm) 6,470 feet (1,970 m)
4. Alaska Valdez 314.1 inches (798 cm) 95 feet (29 m)
5. New Hampshire Mt. Washington 282.1 inches (717 cm) 6,270 feet (1,910 m)
6. Colorado Climax 273.8 inches (695 cm) 11,350 feet (3,460 m)
7. Wyoming Burgess Junction 257.8 inches (655 cm) 8,050 feet (2,450 m)
8. New York High Market (West Turin) 214.2 inches (544 cm) 1,816 feet (554 m)
8. California Lodgepole 214.2 inches (544 cm) 6,730 feet (2,050 m)
10. Michigan Herman 214 inches (540 cm) 1,667 feet (508 m)
11. Vermont Mt. Mansfield 211.9 inches (538 cm) 3,866 feet (1,178 m)
12. Idaho Island Park 211.8 inches (538 cm) 6,298 feet (1,920 m)
13. South Dakota near Lead 195.9 inches (498 cm) 6,120 feet (1,870 m)
14. Montana Mystic Lake 184.3 inches (468 cm) 6,560 feet (2,000 m)
15. West Virginia Terra Alta 175.0 inches (444 cm) 2,582 feet (787 m)
16. Wisconsin Hurley 162.2 inches (412 cm) 1,500 feet (460 m)
17. New Mexico Red River 151.1 inches (384 cm) 8,661 feet (2,640 m)
18. Maine Eustis 123.8 inches (314 cm) 1,163 feet (354 m)
19. Arizona Brigbt Angel Ranger Station 118.4 inches (301 cm) 8,320 feet (2,540 m)
20. Nevada Wild Horse Reservoir 118.2 inches (300 cm) 6,265 feet (1,910 m)
21. Maryland Oakland 105.9 inches (8.83 ft) 2,408 feet (734 m)
22. Ohio Chardon 109.2 inches (277 cm) 1,291 feet (393 m)
23. Pennsylvania Erie 103.0 inches (262 cm) 650 feet (200 m)
24. North Carolina Mt. Mitchell 90.6 inches (230 cm) 6,684 feet (2,037 m)
25. Minnesota Duluth 86.5 inches (220 cm) 651 feet (198 m)
26. Tennessee Mt. Le Conte 82.9 inches (211 cm) 6,345 feet (1,934 m)
27. Connecticut Norfolk 77 inches (200 cm) 1,167 feet (356 m)
28. Massachusetts Ashburnham 75.1 inches (191 cm) 1,028 feet (313 m)
29. Indiana South Bend 66.8 inches (170 cm) 752 feet (229 m)
30. Rhode Island North Foster 60.4 inches (153 cm) 707 feet (215 m)
31. Virginia Wise 52.7 inches (134 cm) 2,436 feet (742 m)
32. North Dakota Fargo 51.6 inches (131 cm) 903 feet (275 m)
33. Nebraska Harrisburg 46.5 inches (118 cm) 4,492 feet (1,369 m)
34. Iowa Dubuque 42.5 inches (108 cm) 708 feet (216 m)
35. New Jersey Sussex 41.2 inches (105 cm) 500 feet (150 m)
36. Illinois Chicago 38.5 inches (98 cm) 858 feet (262 m)
37. Kansas McDonald 37.6 inches (96 cm) 3,364 feet (1,025 m)
38. Kentucky Closplint 31.7 inches (81 cm) 1,551 feet (473 m)
39. Oklahoma Boise City 30.8 inches (78 cm) 4,175 feet (1,273 m)
40. Missouri Edina 22.0 inches (56 cm) 795 feet (242 m)
41. Delaware Wilmington 21.9 inches (56 cm) 114 feet (35 m)
42. Texas Stratford 20.2 inches (51 cm) 3,699 feet (1,127 m)
43. Arkansas Gravette 16.0 inches (41 cm) 1,211 feet (369 m)
44. South Carolina Caesar’s Head 7.2 inches (18 cm) 3,180 feet (970 m)
45. Alabama Valley Head 6.1 inches (15 cm) 1,043 feet (318 m)
46. Georgia Dallas 3.8 inches (9.7 cm) 994 feet (303 m)
47. Mississippi Hickory Flat 2.9 inches (7.4 cm) 435 feet (133 m)
48. Louisiana Shreveport 0.8 inches (2.0 cm) 225 feet (69 m)
49. Florida Milton 0.2 inches (0.51 cm) 9 feet (2.7 m)
50. Hawaii — 0.0 inches (0 cm) —

 

Below are the NWS summaries for November and for the fall season.

Category: Michigan Weather Forecast

20 thoughts on “Snowiest Places in the U.S.”

      1. Yup, that’s great news because it was the same color 2 weeks ago and in 14 days since we’ve had 1 whole inch in total. Another bare and green December. Perfecto!

  2. I see the cpc has flipped back to colder than normal by the middle of next week with above normal precip! So despite all of the warm weather hype by specifically 2 pr 3 posters we will be heading towards more snow and cold!! Who knew? Indy and Rocky knew as usual.

  3. Those are some impressive snow totals! I did not realize that mt. Washington got that much snow! I ski trip may be in order!

  4. 32* out at thee YARDofBRICKS NE of GR another below average day ….. December starting out snowy and cold for most bloggers on here lol…INDY

    1. Have you noticed that some of the long range guesses are hinting at a “cool” down mid December? We shall see.
      Slim

  6. Great Scott getting light snow out at thee YARDofBRICKS NE of GR how could that be? Lol.. Have a great Tuesday ….INDY

  7. Wow, those averages for the top 10 or 15 places make our 50 or 60 inches a year look pretty insignificant. What we get in a whole year they can get in a week or two.

    1. Note that most of the top 15 are much higher in elevation then we are. Places get much more snow on a mountain then we do at our elevation and in many of the top. Also, it snows 9 or 10 months of the year at many of the top 15 locations. Here in west over the same time period (1985-2015) Grand Rapids mean is 77.3” Muskegon is 92.7” I just looked up the records at Herman Michigan and while the mean for years recorded is 215.1” in the period 1985 to 2015 there are 11 years missing with a range of 384” in 1997 to 141 in 1991. Note sure if the missing years would make the mean go up or down. I will check on some of the other top 10 to see how if they have good (or any) searchable records.
      Slim

        1. For some reason Lansing has a lot of missing data and that has been going on for the last couple of years. I am not sure why that is. Of note several of the top 15 snow fall states the site where average mean snow fall it taken several of them also have a lot of missing data the very top one Mount Rainier has a lot of missing data but no problem the number that is used is just the 5 years that they do have total snow fall amounts for. And at Herman Michigan in the years 1985/2015 there are 11 years missing. So far the ones that seem to have the best records of the top 15 are Carter Lake and Valdez.
          Slim

  8. Nice chart for highest average snowfall per state. I was surprised to see that I have been in 1.Herman, MI 2. Lead, SD 3. Hurley, WI 4. Duluth, MN and 5. Chicago, IL the big surprise here is Chicago.

    This past summer I had mentioned several times the lack of thunderstorms we had. Well that can and was a good thing in 2019 there were two tornado watches that covered part of Michigan…one that just included Berrien and Cass Counties and another for the western third of the UP.
    Slim

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