Snow Forecast
A ski resort condition scorer that thinks like a powder hound
50+ ski resorts
6-factor scoring
3-hour ISR cache
Zero API cost
01The Problem
Weather APIs give you raw data — temperature, wind speed, snowfall. They don't tell you whether today is a bluebird powder day or a death-march through icy slush. I wanted a tool that surfaced the conditions that actually matter to skiers.
02The Approach
Built a multi-factor scoring engine on top of Open-Meteo's free API. Instead of showing raw weather data, every resort gets a single score (0–10) computed from six weighted factors: fresh snow in the last 48h, total snowpack depth, bluebird (clear sky + fresh snow), temperature comfort, wind speed, and visibility. The weightings reflect how powder hunters actually prioritize conditions.
03Architecture Decisions
Server-side data fetching with ISR
Resort scores are computed server-side and cached with Next.js ISR at 3-hour intervals. No client-side API calls, no loading states — the page renders with fresh data every 3 hours without rebuilding.
Weighted scoring formula
Each factor contributes a weighted slice of the 0–10 score: fresh snow (35%), snowpack (20%), bluebird bonus (20%), temperature comfort (10%), wind (10%), visibility (5%). Tuned by asking myself 'what would make me cancel a ski day?'
Adventure Meter for North Shore
Vancouver's Cypress, Grouse, and Seymour mountains have a dedicated 'Adventure Meter' section with resort-specific scoring — because local conditions differ from Whistler-scale resorts in ways that matter.
Zero-auth public API
Open-Meteo is completely free and requires no API key. Combined with public resort coordinate data, the entire system runs with no backend costs, no secrets management, and no rate limiting concerns.
04Key Insight
The 'bluebird' condition is worth its own scoring bonus. Fresh snow the night before + clear skies the next morning is an exponentially better experience than either alone — so the algorithm gives it a multiplicative boost rather than just summing the components.
05Why It Matters
A tool I actually use before ski trips. The scoring approach turned what would be a weather data dump into a decision-support tool — you can scan 50 resorts in seconds and know immediately which mountain is worth the drive.