These Are America's Snowiest Cities And Towns

What Are America’s Snowiest Cities And Towns?

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America's snowiest cities are a mix of mountain towns and those near the world's largest group of freshwater lakes. What's considered average in these areas would be incomprehensible even for those in notoriously snowy major cities.

Did any major cities make the list? T​he graph below shows the average yearly snowfall for some notoriously snowy large cities.

T​hey're all fairly impressive. But none of them came close to cracking our top 10 list.

(Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)

Here's h​ow we compiled the list: We pored through 30-year average snowfall statistics of hundreds of locations in the U.S. from 1991 through 2020.

We considered only those towns and cities with a population of at least 1,000, as of the latest census. Unincorporated towns, mountains, ski resorts, national parks and ranger stations were not included.

T​o keep this list from being dominated by one or two states, we also allowed only one city in each state to represent. Strictly speaking, it's not the snowiest 10 cities in the U.S. But we think it's a more interesting list getting more states involved.

1​0. Red Lodge, Montana

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 141.9 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: April (25.5 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Oct. 26, 1996 (36 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: April 19, 1991 (71 inches)

Red Lodge lies at the northern edge of the Beartooth Mountains in southwest Montana. This northern, high-elevation (5,646 feet) location means snowfall 10 months of the year - from September to June - is considered average. They can easily get walloped by a September or late May - June northern Rockies storm.

9. Snyderville, Utah

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 152.9 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: January (34 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Feb. 28, 2021 (30 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: Feb. 8, 2008 (48 inches)

This town nestled in the Wasatch Mountains is only about 20 miles east of downtown Salt Lake City and just north of Park City along Interstate 80. But it's over 2200 feet higher in elevation than Salt Lake City. That's why Snyderville's snowfall is roughly triple that of the capital city.

8. Hurley, Wisconsin

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 155 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: January (38.8 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Jan. 6, 1997 (20 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: Jan. 30, 1996 (60 inches)

We've arrived at the first of the Great Lakes snowbelt cities. This far northern Wisconsin town, and its twin city of Ironwood, Michigan, can pick up impressive lake-effect snow when cold winds pour over western Lake Superior. These lake snowbands can last for hours, sometimes days, after snow elsewhere in the region has ended. Hurley's 295.4 inches of snow from fall 1996 through spring 1997 was a state record most for any season, according to weather historian Christopher Burt.

7. Terra Alta, West Virginia

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 171.1 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: January (41.1 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Jan. 23, 2016 (28 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: Feb. 28, 2010 (54 inches)

This town of just over 1,400 residents is in eastern West Virginia near the border with Garrett County, Maryland. Its elevation of just over 2,600 feet means it can pick up accumulating snow while valley locations are too warm for snow. The Appalachians also can see snow persist for hours or even a day or two after the rest of the East Coast snow has ended as moisture and cold air are lifted by the mountains. Three feet of snow fell in Terra Alta during Superstorm Sandy from Oct. 30 - Nov. 1, 2012.

6. Lead, South Dakota

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 183.9 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: April (29 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: March 14, 1973 (52 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: March 1, 1998 (73 inches)

The town of Lead - pronounced "Leed" - is at the northern end of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and is almost one mile above sea level. The Black Hills can amplify snowfall totals from slow-moving Plains winter storms as moist, cold northerly winds are lifted by the mountains. Lead averages at least 20 inches of snow each month from November through April and lies in the heart of the Great Plains "blizzard alley." A five-day snowstorm in late February and early March 1998 dumped over 112 inches in Lead.

5. Marquette, Michigan

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 196.8 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: January (42.1 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: March 14, 1997 (26.2 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: March 15, 1997 (63 inches)

4. Crested Butte, Colorado

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 203 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: January (42.2 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Jan. 1, 1982 (31 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: Dec. 31, 1923 (120 inches)

This western Colorado mountain town at an elevation of just under 8,900 feet can get buried with snow in several ways. A slow-moving Southwest U.S. low could dump feet of snow for several days. Otherwise, a general west-to-east jet stream track can send a parade of Pacific storms into Colorado's high country. Frankly, what caught our eye most was Crested Butte's records listed above. Both happened over the New Year's holiday in 1982 and 1923. What a way to ring in the new year!

3. Truckee, California

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 206.6 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: February (47.9 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Jan. 3, 1916 (45 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: Jan. 15, 1911 (118 inches)

You couldn't have a top 10 snowiest list without California's Sierra Nevada. From December through March, either a single powerhouse storm or a parade of Pacific storms can bury the Sierra in feet of snow. This epic snow has a notoriously deadly past, from the Donner Party just before the Gold Rush to a daring rescue of passengers from a train trapped for three days in 8 to 12-foot drifts in January 1952. Unofficially, a four-day snowfall of 194 inches at nearby Norden, California, in late April 1880 is thought to be a world snowstorm record, according to weather historian Christopher Burt.

2. Sherman, New York

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 224.5 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: January (61.7 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: March 4, 1971 (32 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: Dec. 12, 1977 (35 inches)

Despite the photo below, Buffalo did not make our top 10 list. Their airport, where the city's official snowfall data is taken, is farther north than the typical lake-effect snow-clobbered "Southtowns" like Orchard Park, home of the NFL's Buffalo Bills. But the town of Sherman, in southwest New York's southern tier near the Pennsylvania state line, represented the Empire State well. Heavy lake snow can come from flow off Lake Erie in several different directions, unlike Buffalo. Those lake snowbands are also enhanced by being lifted by the Chautauqua Hills, as Sherman is at an elevation of 1,560 feet. They can also get snow from conventional snowstorms like other areas of the country.

1. Valdez, Alaska

• A​verage yearly snowfall: 325.3 inches
• Average s​nowiest month: December (70.5 inches)
• R​ecord snowiest day: Jan. 16, 1990 (47.5 inches)
• R​ecord snow depth: April 15, 1929 (135 inches)

S​nowfall in Valdez is on a different level from everywhere else in the U.S., even from the rest of the cities on this list. This southern Alaska city picks up over 100 more inches of snow than Sherman, New York, our second snowiest city. If you could pile up its average snowfall, it would be three times the height of the tallest human being on record (8 feet, 11 inches).

T​here are two reasons for this. First, one of the most common low-pressure systems on the planet, the "Aleutian low," sets up camp to the southwest of Valdez in the colder months. When this happens, copious Pacific moisture pumps into southern Alaska.

S​econdly, while Valdez is surrounded by mountains, they don't completely block cold air in the Alaskan interior. Instead, cold air drains from nearby glaciers and mountain snowfields, as well as through mountain valleys, especially at night.

A parade of snowstorms from late November 2011 through mid-January 2012 left seven feet of snow on the ground. The weight of all this snow stressed buildings to the point snow even burst through some homes in the city.

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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.​