Zermatt snow history

Zermatt averages 522cm of snowfall over a full season, measured from November to May across the last 10 winters. That is well above average: more snow than 88% of 40 resorts we have analysed the same way, where the median season brings 283cm.

Season to season the spread is wide. The best of the last 10 winters was 2023/24 with 784cm, and the leanest was 2021/22 with 347cm — a difference of 437cm between a good year and a poor one. The most recent complete season, 2025/26, delivered 377cm.

November is reliably the snowiest month, averaging 91cm and 12 days with fresh snow.

The modelled snow at this elevation never melts out: the base does not drop below 291cm at any point in the year, including August. That means Zermatt is being measured on glaciated ground, where the reanalysis carries accumulated firn from one year into the next.

The consequence is that a peak depth figure here is not a seasonal base and cannot be compared with resorts that melt out each summer, so we do not rank it. Snow reliability at Zermatt is not in question; the number simply is not measuring what it measures elsewhere. Use the snowfall and powder day figures below, which are unaffected.

Counting any day that delivers at least 15cm of new snow, Zermatt averages 8 powder days a season. That is among the very best we track, more powder days than 90% of 40 resorts we have analysed the same way, where the median is 2 a season.

November has the most, 1.6 on average.

Zermatt averages 21 bluebird days a season — days of sunshine for at least 60% of daylight after 10cm or more of fresh snow. That is well above average, more than 88% of 40 resorts we have analysed the same way, against a median of 10.

March is the best month for it, averaging 4.0 bluebird days and 8.6 hours of sunshine a day.

At mid-mountain Zermatt sees an average of 2 days a season with 1mm or more of rain rather than snow. That is well below average: 0% of the 40 other resorts we have analysed the same way see fewer wet days, against a median of 32.

May is the wettest month of the season, with 1.0 rain days and 5mm on average.

Because the snow at this elevation never fully melts, there is no meaningful date at which cover runs out — which is exactly why Zermatt can offer skiing outside the normal season. Timing here is about snow quality and lift opening rather than whether there is snow at all.

For the deepest base, go in January; for the most new snow, November; for fresh snow with sunshine, March.