How much snow is Donner Pass getting?
No snow in the forecast for Donner Pass in the next 72 hours. Rain instead: about 0.8 inches, with the snow level at 8,500 ft, above Donner Pass at 7,239 ft. NWS forecast updated Oct 20, 2:00 PM PDT; read .
From the National Weather Service’s gridded forecast for I-80 at Donner Summit, read every 30 minutes. Totals are rounded: half inches under 3 inches, whole inches above.
Storm alerts
A notification on this device when chain control starts, changes or lifts, or a road closes or reopens. Pick your roads:
An alert is a heads-up that something changed, not a road report, and it can arrive a few minutes after the change. Before you drive, check Caltrans QuickMap or Nevada 511 (nvroads.com), or call 511. A few alerts a day at most; no account, no email, and you can turn them off here any time (what we keep).
How much snow is Donner Pass getting: NWS snowfall for I-80 at Donner Summit over the next 72 hours, when it falls and the snow level. Read every 30 minutes.
Donner Pass now
No chain controls at Donner Pass (Caltrans). Checked .
The forecast here is for I-80 at Donner Summit, 7,239 feet, the highest point on the interstate in California. Storms off the Pacific drop most of their snow on the west slope and the crest, so the summit usually gets more than Truckee, a few miles east and about 1,400 feet lower, and far more than Reno.
What decides the drive is the snow level against the grade: where it is below a place's height, the forecast is snow on the road there. Caltrans's chain-control checkpoints on I-80 run from Applegate in the foothills up to Castle Peak at the summit, and the camera heights further down this page fill in the grade between Truckee and the summit.
The next 72 hours at Donner Summit, twelve hours at a time
| Period | Snow | Chance of precipitation | Snow level | Temperature | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | none | 12% | 9,500 ft | 53–55°F | 5 mph, gusts 15 |
| Tuesday night | none | 19% | 9,500 ft | 39–51°F | 5 mph |
| Wednesday | none | 70% | 9,500 ft | 38–51°F | 5 mph, gusts 15 |
| Wednesday night | none | 91% | 8,500–10,000 ft | 38–47°F | 3 mph, gusts 13 |
| Thursday | none | 83% | 8,500 ft | 36–42°F | 6 mph, gusts 20 |
| Thursday night | none | 70% | 7,500–8,500 ft | 35–42°F | 7 mph, gusts 18 |
Heights to read the snow level against
The working cameras within 15 miles of Donner Summit, highest first. Where the snow level is below a camera’s height, the forecast is snow there; above it, rain.
- I-80 at Donner Summit · 7,221 ft
- I-80 at Castle Peak · 7,165 ft
- I-80 at Soda Springs - Eastbound · 6,692 ft
- I-80 at Donner Lake · 6,394 ft
- SR-89 at Tahoe City / Alpine Meadows · 6,220 ft
- SR-267 at Northstar · 6,197 ft
- I-80 at Kingvale - Westbound · 6,128 ft
- SR-89 at Olympic Valley · 6,122 ft
Donner Summit, where the forecast is read, and the cameras around it.
Where this forecast comes from
The National Weather Service forecasts on a grid of cells about 2.5 kilometres across, and updates it through the day. This page reads the cell that holds I-80 at Donner Summit: Donner Summit, issued by the NWS office in Sacramento, a cell whose average height is 7,195 ft. A cell’s average height can sit well below a summit, which is why the snow level is compared with the place itself. The snow total is the sum of the forecast’s own amounts for the next 72 hours; nothing is added to it, and no range is invented around it.
The full NWS forecast, with the forecaster’s discussion, is at forecast.weather.gov for Donner Summit. For avalanche danger in the backcountry, read the Sierra Avalanche Center, not a snow total.
More for this trip
- How much snow is Tahoe getting: every pass, resort and town
- Do I need chains on Donner Pass right now?
- Donner Pass webcams
- I-80 road conditions and cameras
- What to carry for a Sierra winter drive
Snow forecasts for the others: Echo Summit · Mt Rose · and Heavenly · Palisades Tahoe · Northstar · Kirkwood · Sugar Bowl · Sierra-at-Tahoe · Boreal
Snow forecast: National Weather Service (api.weather.gov), public domain, read every 30 minutes. Not an official NWS product. Chain control: Caltrans and NDOT, read every five minutes. Nevada Explorer is not affiliated with the National Weather Service. A forecast is not the road: confirm at roads.dot.ca.gov, nvroads.com or 511 before you travel.