Oceania
Solid · 2026 season average
Projected to open July 25, 2027 · average of 20 verified open days
Best months to book: August, September · last season + 30-yr record
Scroll for happiness
Projected to open Jul 25 — closed September 6
Weather data is still collected for informational purposes.
Last Snowfall
Oct 31
Past 24 Hours
7cm
Past 48 Hours
9cm
Past 10 Days
9cm
7-Day Forecast
0cm
Snow Depth
--
Powder Days
17
2026 season
Bluebird Days
1
2026 season
Solid
2026 season average
Rainbow is projected to open July 25, 2027. Last season it averaged 37.6 across 20 verified open days.
Best months to book
Best weeks to book
Ranked on 25% last season's SnowSure score (2026) · 75% 30-year snowfall and base-depth record. Last season's strongest fortnight was 23 Aug – 5 Sep. One season describes what happened, not what to expect. The live score returns when the lifts turn.
Updated Oct 30 at 11:04 PM
Days 8–14 and every model are in SnowSure Pro.Unlock with Pro
No measurement at mid height (1,598m) reached us: past snow shown is the model's estimate at the summit.
31 Sat 5° / -7° | 1 Sun 7° / -4° | 2 Mon 6° / 0° | 3 Tue 8° / 3° | 4 Wed 10° / 3° | 5 Thu 10° / 3° | 6 Fri 10° / 6° | Days 8–14 and every model are in SnowSure Pro.Unlock with Pro | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM | PM | Night | AM | PM | Night | AM | PM | Night | AM | PM | Night | AM | PM | Night | AM | PM | Night | AM | PM | Night | 7 Sat | 8 Sun | 9 Mon | 10 Tue | 11 Wed | 12 Thu | 13 Fri | |
| Conditions | ☀️ | ☁️ | ⛅ | 🌤️ | ⛅ | ☁️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | ☁️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | ☁️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | ☁️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | 🌧️ | |||||||
| clear | cloudy | some clouds | mostly clear | some clouds | cloudy | drizzle | drizzle | light drizzle | drizzle | drizzle | cloudy | light drizzle | drizzle | cloudy | light drizzle | drizzle | cloudy | light drizzle | drizzle | light drizzle | ||||||||
| Mid-mountain1,598 mModeled | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Temp°C | -1° | 6° | 0° | 2° | 9° | 2° | 3° | 6° | 3° | 6° | 8° | 6° | 7° | 9° | 6° | 6° | 10° | 6° | 7° | 10° | 7° | |||||||
| Feels like°C | -6° | 3° | -4° | -2° | 4° | -3° | -2° | 1° | -1° | 2° | 5° | 3° | 4° | 8° | 4° | 4° | 7° | 4° | 5° | 8° | 6° | |||||||
| Snowcm | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | 0.1 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||
| Precipmm | · | · | 0.2 | · | · | 0.1 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 7.2 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 4.8 | |||||||
| Windkm/h | 3 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 19 | 9 | 22 | 25 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 12 | |||||||
| Summit1,758 mModeled | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Temp°C | -2° | 5° | -1° | 1° | 8° | 1° | 2° | 5° | 2° | 5° | 7° | 5° | 6° | 8° | 5° | 5° | 9° | 5° | 6° | 9° | 6° | |||||||
| Feels like°C | -7° | 2° | -5° | -3° | 3° | -4° | -4° | 0° | -2° | 1° | 4° | 2° | 3° | 7° | 3° | 3° | 6° | 3° | 4° | 6° | 4° | |||||||
| Snowcm | · | · | 0.1 | · | · | · | 0.3 | · | 0.5 | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||
| Precipmm | · | · | 0.2 | · | · | 0.1 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 7.2 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 4.8 | |||||||
| Windkm/h | 3 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 19 | 9 | 22 | 25 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 12 | |||||||
| Base1,438 mModeled | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Temp°C | 0° | 7° | 1° | 3° | 10° | 3° | 4° | 7° | 4° | 7° | 9° | 7° | 8° | 10° | 7° | 7° | 11° | 7° | 8° | 11° | 9° | |||||||
| Feels like°C | -5° | 4° | -3° | 0° | 6° | -2° | -1° | 3° | 0° | 3° | 6° | 4° | 6° | 10° | 5° | 5° | 8° | 5° | 6° | 9° | 7° | |||||||
| Snowcm | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | |||||||
| Precipmm | · | · | 0.2 | · | · | 0.1 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 7.2 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 4.8 | |||||||
| Windkm/h | 3 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 19 | 9 | 22 | 25 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 12 | |||||||
| Humidity% | 74 | 47 | 89 | 79 | 63 | 97 | 99 | 88 | 99 | 100 | 92 | 99 | 88 | 74 | 99 | 91 | 85 | 100 | 98 | 94 | 100 | |||||||
| 0°C linem | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| Sunhours | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Freeze line is the height where rain turns to snow. Plain: straight from the models. Marked ○: estimated from temperature. Sun is hours of actual sunshine, not day length; blank means we have no reading.
Every model for Rainbow, side by side for 14 days
Where the models agree, where they split, and which one has been most accurate here.
Unlock with ProThe black line is not a simple average. For Rainbow (southern alps), we combine seven global weather models using weights learned from daily forecast verification — comparing each model's prediction to measured snowfall (SNOTEL, resort reports, ERA5).
Building verification history for this resort.
How we verify forecasts →New Zealand region
El Niño Outlook · Winter 2026
Rainbow is under review in SnowSure's El Niño dataset — we will not publish a rank against a discontinuous historical series.
This station is under review and carries no rank: its 30-year ERA5 baseline falls below the 80cm floor our methodology commits to, so percentage swings computed on it are unstable by construction. We expect it to benefit from El Niño; our method cannot size that reliably.
In 5 past El Niño winters at Rainbow, ERA5 season snowfall median was 27 cm (11 in), about 8% below this resort’s long-term median. This is a historical analog from reanalysis — not a prediction of this winter’s storm track.
Prevailing ONI
El Niño
JJA 2026 · ANOM +1.8°C
Analog season median
27cm
5 El Niño winters · 8% below median
All-season median
29cm
Across 30 ERA5 seasons (2026)
| Phase | Seasons | Median | p25–p75 | Recent analogs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Niñocurrent | 5 | 27cm | 15cm – 35cm | 2023, 2015, 2009, 2002, 1997 |
| La Niña | 4 | 28cm | 11cm – 112cm | 2022, 2010, 1999, 1998 |
| ENSO-neutral | 21 | 30cm | 21cm – 117cm | 2025, 2024, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 |
Season snowfall from Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis (~9 km). ENSO phase from NOAA CPC Oceanic Niño Index. Relative phase differences are more trustworthy than absolute cm totals. Source: NOAA CPC Oceanic Niño Index + Open-Meteo ERA5 via SnowSure season archive.
How accurate is this forecast?
We verify every forecast against what actually fell — see the model-by-model results.
