Washington State Ski Conditions and Forecast Visualization January 7, 2011

I’ve been playing around with the raphael.js visualization library. For those who aren’t geeks, that doesn’t mean much though. More importantly, I’ve created a way to view the past, current, and forecast ski/snowboard conditions for the ski “resorts” of western Washington. It allows you to visually assess the ski conditions to choose when and where to go.

Stevens Pass, Mt Baker, Alpental, and Crystal Ski Forecasts

I’ve spent a lot of time poring over the NWAC logs, conditions and the NOAA forecasts. And I’ve looked at a variety of websites, but I never felt that they all brought the data together in one succinct visual package. The goal of my ski forecast visualization is to do just that. Minimize the time I spend looking at the weather and maximize the time and quality on the slopes.

The data comes mostly from NWAC and NOAA, although I’m always looking for additional data. Right now, I think freezing level would be nice to have, but generally, temperatures are a good indication of the freezing level. I’ll also be adding other Washington State Ski Areas as I get the time.

Finally, due to the slight complexity of the data, I’ve added a legend to explain all of the data points. They can be summed up as:

• Temperature history
• Precipitation history
• Snow base depth history
• Visual conditions
• Current temps and wind
• Forecast conditions
• Forecast snowfall
• forecast temperatures

And here’s a legend to help out as well:

Visual look at Washington State Snow Conditions

And if you didn’t figure out where to click, it’s the ski forecast link up at the top of the page.