Australian Alpine Weather Hub — source catalogue

Every forecast source the ski.com.au community actually uses, organised by forecast horizon rather than by provider. This page is generated directly from data/sources.yaml — the registry that drives every panel on the site.

71sources
15Tier A (own-rendered)
9Tier B (embeddable)
69ToS audited
22embed refused
2need recheck
Jump within this catalogue
Phase 0 — registry preview. 2 of 71 sources have not had their terms of service reviewed yet. Until they do, they render as link-out cards regardless of their intended tier — no hotlinking, no thumbnails.

Now / observations & verification 13

BoM alpine AWS observations

16

Half-hourly temp/wind/precip at the alpine stations — the verification layer the obs threads run on.

A · own-rendered Cred A observations we render it embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 live

P2-1 VERIFIED all five station identities on 2026-07-26 against BoM's own station metadata list IDCJMC0014 (climate/data/lists_by_element/stations.txt), then confirmed the join against each live feed's wmo and name fields. Two identifier namespaces are in play and both are preserved: the seven-character BoM station number in resorts.yaml (071075) and the five-digit WMO/feed id that addresses the JSON product (94915). The crosswalk lives in src/lib/obs/stations.ts with its evidence.

BoM alpine forecasts & warnings

16

Official 7-day point forecasts and severe-weather/blizzard warnings for the alpine districts.

C · link-out card Cred A agency link-out only embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 planned

Anonymous FTP (IDN/IDV product XML) is the sanctioned machine-readable route — no scraping.

Windy.com

16

Dominant for short-range "what will it look like at the resort" checks across EC/GFS/ICON/AROME layers.

B · embedded Cred B visualiser embedded Phase 2 live

Official embed widget exists — the one third-party viewer we can legitimately embed. Lazy-load it (heavy iframe).

ski.com.au Spencers Creek season thread

15

The season-long snow-depth tracking thread built on the Snowy Hydro readings.

C · link-out card Cred C forum link-out only Phase 2 planned

BoM radar

9

Live precipitation echo over the Alps — the only genuinely real-time panel on the site.

C · link-out card Cred A observations link-out only embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 planned

Relevant radars — Captains Flat (IDR403), Yarrawonga (IDR493), Melbourne (IDR023). Alpine radar coverage is poor (beam blocking); label that honestly.

Resort snow reports

9

Daily depths and overnight new-snow numbers; marketing-inflected but universally checked.

C · link-out card Cred B observations link-out only Phase 2 live

Snowy Hydro snow depths (Spencers Creek, Deep Creek, 3 Mile Dam)

9

THE verification dataset for Australian snow — weekly snow-course readings back to 1954 plus newer near-daily instrumentation.

C · link-out card Cred A observations link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 2 planned

Ground truth, and the emotional centre of the season for this community ("Spencers Creek 2026" thread). The historical series makes a current-vs-1954–present percentile chart the single best panel on the site — IF the audit clears reuse. Otherwise: link-out card, no exceptions.

BoM / Himawari satellite imagery

6

Cloud structure over the SE Australian domain; fills radar's alpine blind spots.

C · link-out card Cred A observations link-out only embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 planned

Resort webcams

6

Live visual confirmation of what the models promised.

C · link-out card Cred B observations link-out only Phase 2 live
Individual resort operators no direct URL

Snow-stake webcams

6

The overnight-verification ritual — did the forecast snow actually land on the stake.

C · link-out card Cred B observations link-out only Phase 2 live

Pair each stake cam with last night's forecast snowfall for that resort — the highest-value "did it verify?" panel.

Individual resort operators no direct URL

Weatherzone /snow

2

Resort forecasts, snow depths and cams — the benchmark the community scores its own daily comparisons against.

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only embed refused Phase 2 planned

Weatherzone

1

Obs, lightning and model summaries; commercial (DTN).

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only embed refused Phase 2 planned

earth.nullschool.net

0

Alternative flow visualiser; good for explaining a cutoff low to non-specialists.

C · link-out card Cred B visualiser link-out only Phase 5 backlog

0–3 days 27

ECMWF IFS EC · Euro

25

The community's reference model; run-to-run continuity of "EC" is the core currency of the threads.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Two explicitly separate point products are live. The 0.25° feed supplies the pressure-level profile used for snow-level and resort-elevation phase analysis. Native deterministic IFS supplies an approximately 9 km Australian surface precipitation and snowfall-water-equivalent reference. The native surface track is unphased and never substituted for, or silently merged into, the 0.25° profile. Community views IFS mostly through third-party chart sites; we render directly from Open-Meteo point data and ECMWF open GRIB fields.

NOAA GFS GFS

25

Second reference model; the over-eager one, used to cross-check EC.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Fully open via NOMADS and AWS Open Data. No auth, no rate paywall.

BoM alpine forecasts & warnings

16

Official 7-day point forecasts and severe-weather/blizzard warnings for the alpine districts.

C · link-out card Cred A agency link-out only embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 planned

Anonymous FTP (IDN/IDV product XML) is the sanctioned machine-readable route — no scraping.

BoM MSLP analysis & prognosis charts

16

The official synoptic chart the community screenshots inside ~4 days.

C · link-out card Cred A agency link-out only embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 planned

BoM material is CC-BY but the site ToS restricts automated retrieval — audit required (P0-6).

Windy.com

16

Dominant for short-range "what will it look like at the resort" checks across EC/GFS/ICON/AROME layers.

B · embedded Cred B visualiser embedded Phase 2 live

Official embed widget exists — the one third-party viewer we can legitimately embed. Lazy-load it (heavy iframe).

Open-Meteo API

15

Free multi-model point API (ECMWF IFS/AIFS, GFS/GEFS, ACCESS-G, ICON) — the data backbone for every own-rendered panel.

A · own-rendered Cred B data-api we render it Phase 1 live

MANDATORY ATTRIBUTION: "Weather data by Open-Meteo.com", linked, on every panel carrying its data — not footer-only. CONSTRAINT: free tier is CC BY 4.0 non-commercial, ~10k calls/day; project is committed to staying non-commercial. Migration path if that changes is Open-Meteo's paid endpoint (customer-api.open-meteo.com + API key, same API shape) — NOT raw model ingestion. All calls sit behind the WeatherProvider interface (ADR 0001 §7).

Phil Hart snow forecasts

15

Community-built resort snow-level/precip dashboard on Open-Meteo with transparent thickness-based methodology.

C · link-out card Cred C community-tool link-out only Phase 1 live

PRIOR ART, not a competitor. Our Phase 1 is the same idea done wider. Credit him explicitly on the snow-level panel and in /credits. Do not scrape.

BoM ACCESS-G / ACCESS-C ACCESS

12

The local model; leaned on hard inside 48–72 h for snow-level and precip detail, largely ignored at range.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it embed refused Phase 1 in-progress

Direct gridded ACCESS-G needs NCI registered access. Open-Meteo exposes ACCESS-G point forecasts — use that for Tier A meteograms; skip raw NCI.

ICON (DWD)

10

Third-opinion cross-check, usually consulted via Windy.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Free ride — already in the Open-Meteo multi-model call.

AerisCast

6

Snow-level and MSLP+precip loops plus Kosciuszko atmosphere/sounding panels, built on EC/AIFS/GFS open data.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 2 planned

Free. Its snow-level product is a second cross-check for our own panel.

JMA GSM JMA

5

Fifth-opinion global deterministic centre, carried as a comparison track rather than on the primary panel.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it ToS unchecked Phase 1 live

Free ride — added to the existing Open-Meteo multi-model call. Rendered only as a comparison track. The headline licence stays "unverified" until JMA's own GSM terms have been read.

UKMO Global (Met Office) UKMO · UKMET

5

Fourth-opinion global deterministic centre, carried as a comparison track rather than on the primary panel.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it ToS unchecked Phase 1 live

Free ride — added to the existing Open-Meteo multi-model call, so it costs no extra request. Rendered only as a comparison track; it is not one of the four models the primary precipitation split is built from. The headline licence stays "unverified" until someone reads the Met Office's own terms for the global deterministic 10 km product.

Jane's Weather

4

Australian multi-model aggregator graphing EC/GFS/ACCESS side by side per location; linked from the KB sticky.

C · link-out card Cred B point-forecast link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Closest existing analogue to our Phase 1 comparison view. Worth a card and worth studying.

Meteologix / Kachelmannwetter

3

The "modez" (ECMWF) Australian panels, sub-seasonal anomaly charts and rapid-update animations.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only not yet cleared Phase 1 live

Meteologix AU snowline & 0 °C isotherm charts

3

The KB sticky's canonical snow-level links — EC snowline and GFS 0 °C isotherm height.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only not yet cleared Phase 1 live

DUAL ROLE: also the ground-truth cross-check for our own snow-level panel. QA ticket P1-7 sanity-checks our thickness-derived snow level against this product for the same run.

Weatherzone /snow

2

Resort forecasts, snow depths and cams — the benchmark the community scores its own daily comparisons against.

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only embed refused Phase 2 planned

Metraweather

1

MetService's commercial arm; supplies several resort forecasts.

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Context card only — explains who actually writes some resort forecasts.

Weatherzone

1

Obs, lightning and model summaries; commercial (DTN).

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only embed refused Phase 2 planned

BoM MetEye + ADFD gridded forecasts

0

Official gridded AU forecast layer (7-day, includes snow) — the authoritative comparison for our own snow-level panel.

C · link-out card Cred A agency link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 2 planned

MetEye is a heavy JS app — link-out card. ADFD gridded access is registered-only.

earth.nullschool.net

0

Alternative flow visualiser; good for explaining a cutoff low to non-specialists.

C · link-out card Cred B visualiser link-out only Phase 5 backlog

ECMWF Open Charts

0

Free official EC/AIFS/ENS charts incl. meteograms and anomaly products — the primary-source alternative to third-party chart sites.

B · embedded Cred A chart-platform embedded Phase 1 in-progress

Highest-value Tier B source: authoritative, CC-BY, replaces the ToS-murky Pivotal/Meteologix panels for synoptic context. Prefer over all of them.

ECMWF Open Data (IFS/AIFS 0.25° GRIB)

0

Raw fields for own-rendered MSLP/precip/thickness maps over an Australian domain.

A · own-rendered Cred A data-api we render it Phase 3 planned

GRIB decoding in a Worker is impractical — use the standalone scheduled Python/ecCodes producer, emitting a canonical-grid JSON artifact for the static site.

meteoblue multi-model meteograms

0

Ensemble-at-a-glance widget; useful benchmark for our own multi-model meteogram.

C · link-out card Cred B point-forecast link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Cleared for embedding ONLY via meteoblue Plug&Play widgets with a visible METEOBLUE reference close to the data. Scraping/framing the plain page is not covered.

NIWA & MetService (NZ)

0

The trans-Tasman flank of the same synoptic systems.

D · reference shelf Cred A agency reference link Phase 5 backlog

NOAA NOMADS / AWS Open Data

0

Raw GFS/GEFS GRIB with byte-range subsetting for the Australian domain.

A · own-rendered Cred A data-api we render it Phase 3 planned

Use the `.idx` byte-range filter — retrieve only the selected full-grid message ranges, then interpolate the Australian domain to the canonical output grid.

snow-forecast.com / mountain-forecast.com

0

Resort-level multi-elevation forecasts; widely used outside the forum.

C · link-out card Cred C point-forecast link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Cleared for embedding ONLY via their free official widget (snow-forecast.com/pages/configure_feed1) with attribution. Framing the raw resort page is explicitly banned — swap `url` to the widget endpoint before any Phase 5 embed.

Ventusky

0

Alternative multi-model visualiser with a good snow-depth layer.

C · link-out card Cred B visualiser link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Cleared for embedding ONLY via embed.ventusky.com with an active link back to ventusky.com. No API exists.

3–7 days 32

ECMWF IFS EC · Euro

25

The community's reference model; run-to-run continuity of "EC" is the core currency of the threads.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Two explicitly separate point products are live. The 0.25° feed supplies the pressure-level profile used for snow-level and resort-elevation phase analysis. Native deterministic IFS supplies an approximately 9 km Australian surface precipitation and snowfall-water-equivalent reference. The native surface track is unphased and never substituted for, or silently merged into, the 0.25° profile. Community views IFS mostly through third-party chart sites; we render directly from Open-Meteo point data and ECMWF open GRIB fields.

NOAA GFS GFS

25

Second reference model; the over-eager one, used to cross-check EC.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Fully open via NOMADS and AWS Open Data. No auth, no rate paywall.

ski.com.au Predictions threads

25

Where the analysis this site serves actually happens — the primary audience and the reason the hub exists.

C · link-out card Cred C forum link-out only Phase 1 planned

Persistent "discuss this on the forum" link in the header. This is a companion to the forum, not a replacement.

BoM MSLP analysis & prognosis charts

16

The official synoptic chart the community screenshots inside ~4 days.

C · link-out card Cred A agency link-out only embed refused retrievable · not cleared Phase 2 planned

BoM material is CC-BY but the site ToS restricts automated retrieval — audit required (P0-6).

Windy.com

16

Dominant for short-range "what will it look like at the resort" checks across EC/GFS/ICON/AROME layers.

B · embedded Cred B visualiser embedded Phase 2 live

Official embed widget exists — the one third-party viewer we can legitimately embed. Lazy-load it (heavy iframe).

ECMWF AIFS the EC robot

15

Early-signal tiebreaker at long lead — "the EC robot is also beginning to show some interest".

A · own-rendered Cred B model-ai we render it Phase 1 live

Available in Open-Meteo as a deterministic model and as a separate 51-member AIFS 0.25° ensemble. Ensemble point values retain native-grid semantics, remain separate from IFS ENS and GEFS, and are not described as snowfall at a resort elevation or at 1500 m.

Open-Meteo API

15

Free multi-model point API (ECMWF IFS/AIFS, GFS/GEFS, ACCESS-G, ICON) — the data backbone for every own-rendered panel.

A · own-rendered Cred B data-api we render it Phase 1 live

MANDATORY ATTRIBUTION: "Weather data by Open-Meteo.com", linked, on every panel carrying its data — not footer-only. CONSTRAINT: free tier is CC BY 4.0 non-commercial, ~10k calls/day; project is committed to staying non-commercial. Migration path if that changes is Open-Meteo's paid endpoint (customer-api.open-meteo.com + API key, same API shape) — NOT raw model ingestion. All calls sit behind the WeatherProvider interface (ADR 0001 §7).

Phil Hart snow forecasts

15

Community-built resort snow-level/precip dashboard on Open-Meteo with transparent thickness-based methodology.

C · link-out card Cred C community-tool link-out only Phase 1 live

PRIOR ART, not a competitor. Our Phase 1 is the same idea done wider. Credit him explicitly on the snow-level panel and in /credits. Do not scrape.

BoM ACCESS-G / ACCESS-C ACCESS

12

The local model; leaned on hard inside 48–72 h for snow-level and precip detail, largely ignored at range.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it embed refused Phase 1 in-progress

Direct gridded ACCESS-G needs NCI registered access. Open-Meteo exposes ACCESS-G point forecasts — use that for Tier A meteograms; skip raw NCI.

ECMWF ENS / EPS EPS · ensembles

12

The probabilistic backbone; posters police the norm that beyond ~5 days you read spread, not runs.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

Resort-point spread and independent liquid-equivalent precipitation probability are live via Open-Meteo's global ECMWF IFS 0.25° ensemble. Native approximately 9 km ensemble delivery listed for Europe is a geographic forecast domain, not an account or citizenship entitlement, and does not cover Australian resort points. Domain anomaly/map context remains P3-5; UI shows separate spread and probability, never a single member.

NOAA GEFS

12

Fully open ensemble system — our best shot at own-rendered spread/probability panels.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

Open-Meteo exposes GEFS members at points — enough for resort-level probability-of-snow plumes without touching GRIB.

ICON (DWD)

10

Third-opinion cross-check, usually consulted via Windy.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Free ride — already in the Open-Meteo multi-model call.

The Snowstack (Tyson Millar)

8

Narrative synthesis of the model picture; well received in-thread.

C · link-out card Cred C commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

Substack exposes a public RSS feed — headline + date + link only, never full text.

Tropical Tidbits

8

Levi Cowan's free site — source of most GFS/EPS/AIFS Australia-domain panels posted in-thread.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Highest-frequency chart source in the threads (20+ uploads). Ships as a deep-linked Tier C card until the audit says otherwise — never hotlink the .gif files.

AerisCast

6

Snow-level and MSLP+precip loops plus Kosciuszko atmosphere/sounding panels, built on EC/AIFS/GFS open data.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 2 planned

Free. Its snow-level product is a second cross-check for our own panel.

JMA GSM JMA

5

Fifth-opinion global deterministic centre, carried as a comparison track rather than on the primary panel.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it ToS unchecked Phase 1 live

Free ride — added to the existing Open-Meteo multi-model call. Rendered only as a comparison track. The headline licence stays "unverified" until JMA's own GSM terms have been read.

NOAA AI-GFS (experimental) AIGFS · AI-GFS

5

NOAA's experimental AI global model, retrieved direct from NOMADS as GRIB2 and own-rendered rather than borrowed as someone else's chart.

A · own-rendered Cred B model-ai we render it not yet cleared retrievable · not cleared Phase 5 in-progress

Reclassified from "not worth own-rendering". That verdict was about the Tropical Tidbits chart route and was correct for it; the direct NOMADS GRIB2 route is a different proposition — public directory, .idx sidecars, byte-range retrieval, our own rendering, no third party's terms involved. A retrieval adapter exists at scripts/aigfs/ (index parsing, byte-range selection, ecCodes decode, unit tests). It is NOT wired into any page: whether AI-GFS earns panel space is a separate decision, and the republication licence is unaudited, so ingestion stays behind AIGFS_INGEST and nothing renders.

UKMO Global (Met Office) UKMO · UKMET

5

Fourth-opinion global deterministic centre, carried as a comparison track rather than on the primary panel.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it ToS unchecked Phase 1 live

Free ride — added to the existing Open-Meteo multi-model call, so it costs no extra request. Rendered only as a comparison track; it is not one of the four models the primary precipitation split is built from. The headline licence stays "unverified" until someone reads the Met Office's own terms for the global deterministic 10 km product.

Jane's Weather

4

Australian multi-model aggregator graphing EC/GFS/ACCESS side by side per location; linked from the KB sticky.

C · link-out card Cred B point-forecast link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Closest existing analogue to our Phase 1 comparison view. Worth a card and worth studying.

Pivotal Weather

4

Source of the recurring ECMWF full-res forecast loops and 9-km EC snowfall panels.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Some products now behind Pivotal Plus. Card must not imply free access to paywalled loops.

Meteologix / Kachelmannwetter

3

The "modez" (ECMWF) Australian panels, sub-seasonal anomaly charts and rapid-update animations.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only not yet cleared Phase 1 live

Meteologix AU snowline & 0 °C isotherm charts

3

The KB sticky's canonical snow-level links — EC snowline and GFS 0 °C isotherm height.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only not yet cleared Phase 1 live

DUAL ROLE: also the ground-truth cross-check for our own snow-level panel. QA ticket P1-7 sanity-checks our thickness-derived snow level against this product for the same run.

Mountainwatch / "the Grasshopper"

2

Expert forecaster commentary; season outlooks and weekly forecasts read by the same audience.

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

BoM MetEye + ADFD gridded forecasts

0

Official gridded AU forecast layer (7-day, includes snow) — the authoritative comparison for our own snow-level panel.

C · link-out card Cred A agency link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 2 planned

MetEye is a heavy JS app — link-out card. ADFD gridded access is registered-only.

ECCC GEPS GEPS · Canadian ensemble

0

A fourth independent ensemble system, alongside ECMWF IFS ENS/AIFS ENS and GEFS — coarser grid, but a genuinely separate model family.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

0.5° (~50 km) grid — the coarsest product rendered on either ensemble page, with adjacent resorts routinely sharing one grid cell. 21 members (control + 20). Verified live 2026-08-02: temperature_2m, precipitation, snowfall and snowfall_water_equivalent all present and non-null to hour 384 at Perisher coordinates. Deterministic GEM (gem_global) is out of scope — its storage domain has not initialised since 2026-05-26 and is not rendered anywhere.

ECMWF Open Charts

0

Free official EC/AIFS/ENS charts incl. meteograms and anomaly products — the primary-source alternative to third-party chart sites.

B · embedded Cred A chart-platform embedded Phase 1 in-progress

Highest-value Tier B source: authoritative, CC-BY, replaces the ToS-murky Pivotal/Meteologix panels for synoptic context. Prefer over all of them.

ECMWF Open Data (IFS/AIFS 0.25° GRIB)

0

Raw fields for own-rendered MSLP/precip/thickness maps over an Australian domain.

A · own-rendered Cred A data-api we render it Phase 3 planned

GRIB decoding in a Worker is impractical — use the standalone scheduled Python/ecCodes producer, emitting a canonical-grid JSON artifact for the static site.

meteoblue multi-model meteograms

0

Ensemble-at-a-glance widget; useful benchmark for our own multi-model meteogram.

C · link-out card Cred B point-forecast link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Cleared for embedding ONLY via meteoblue Plug&Play widgets with a visible METEOBLUE reference close to the data. Scraping/framing the plain page is not covered.

NIWA & MetService (NZ)

0

The trans-Tasman flank of the same synoptic systems.

D · reference shelf Cred A agency reference link Phase 5 backlog

NOAA NOMADS / AWS Open Data

0

Raw GFS/GEFS GRIB with byte-range subsetting for the Australian domain.

A · own-rendered Cred A data-api we render it Phase 3 planned

Use the `.idx` byte-range filter — retrieve only the selected full-grid message ranges, then interpolate the Australian domain to the canonical output grid.

snow-forecast.com / mountain-forecast.com

0

Resort-level multi-elevation forecasts; widely used outside the forum.

C · link-out card Cred C point-forecast link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Cleared for embedding ONLY via their free official widget (snow-forecast.com/pages/configure_feed1) with attribution. Framing the raw resort page is explicitly banned — swap `url` to the widget endpoint before any Phase 5 embed.

Ventusky

0

Alternative multi-model visualiser with a good snow-depth layer.

C · link-out card Cred B visualiser link-out only Phase 5 backlog

Cleared for embedding ONLY via embed.ventusky.com with an active link back to ventusky.com. No API exists.

7+ days & ensembles 24

ECMWF IFS EC · Euro

25

The community's reference model; run-to-run continuity of "EC" is the core currency of the threads.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Two explicitly separate point products are live. The 0.25° feed supplies the pressure-level profile used for snow-level and resort-elevation phase analysis. Native deterministic IFS supplies an approximately 9 km Australian surface precipitation and snowfall-water-equivalent reference. The native surface track is unphased and never substituted for, or silently merged into, the 0.25° profile. Community views IFS mostly through third-party chart sites; we render directly from Open-Meteo point data and ECMWF open GRIB fields.

NOAA GFS GFS

25

Second reference model; the over-eager one, used to cross-check EC.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-deterministic we render it Phase 1 live

Fully open via NOMADS and AWS Open Data. No auth, no rate paywall.

ski.com.au Predictions threads

25

Where the analysis this site serves actually happens — the primary audience and the reason the hub exists.

C · link-out card Cred C forum link-out only Phase 1 planned

Persistent "discuss this on the forum" link in the header. This is a companion to the forum, not a replacement.

ECMWF AIFS the EC robot

15

Early-signal tiebreaker at long lead — "the EC robot is also beginning to show some interest".

A · own-rendered Cred B model-ai we render it Phase 1 live

Available in Open-Meteo as a deterministic model and as a separate 51-member AIFS 0.25° ensemble. Ensemble point values retain native-grid semantics, remain separate from IFS ENS and GEFS, and are not described as snowfall at a resort elevation or at 1500 m.

NOAA CPC AAO / SAM index

15

Daily AAO index plot with GFS/ENS forecast tail — the number the threads quote for "negative SAM event".

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 live

Best Phase 4 target: plain ASCII index series + public domain = own-rendered chart with our own styling, no ToS question at all.

Open-Meteo API

15

Free multi-model point API (ECMWF IFS/AIFS, GFS/GEFS, ACCESS-G, ICON) — the data backbone for every own-rendered panel.

A · own-rendered Cred B data-api we render it Phase 1 live

MANDATORY ATTRIBUTION: "Weather data by Open-Meteo.com", linked, on every panel carrying its data — not footer-only. CONSTRAINT: free tier is CC BY 4.0 non-commercial, ~10k calls/day; project is committed to staying non-commercial. Migration path if that changes is Open-Meteo's paid endpoint (customer-api.open-meteo.com + API key, same API shape) — NOT raw model ingestion. All calls sit behind the WeatherProvider interface (ADR 0001 §7).

ECMWF ENS / EPS EPS · ensembles

12

The probabilistic backbone; posters police the norm that beyond ~5 days you read spread, not runs.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

Resort-point spread and independent liquid-equivalent precipitation probability are live via Open-Meteo's global ECMWF IFS 0.25° ensemble. Native approximately 9 km ensemble delivery listed for Europe is a geographic forecast domain, not an account or citizenship entitlement, and does not cover Australian resort points. Domain anomaly/map context remains P3-5; UI shows separate spread and probability, never a single member.

NOAA GEFS

12

Fully open ensemble system — our best shot at own-rendered spread/probability panels.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

Open-Meteo exposes GEFS members at points — enough for resort-level probability-of-snow plumes without touching GRIB.

BoM SAM (Southern Annular Mode) page

9

Official SAM commentary — the standard long-range framing device in-thread.

C · link-out card → Tier B pending Cred A climate-index link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 4 planned

NOAA CPC MJO monitoring

8

RMM phase diagram and the ECMWF MJO forecast page — long-range context alongside SAM.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

The ECMWF-sourced plot on the CPC page is ECMWF's — attribute both.

Stratospheric monitoring / SSW watch

8

SH polar vortex and SSW events materially drive SAM and Australian cold outbreaks; the forum runs a dedicated thread.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

10 hPa zonal-mean wind + temperature is the card. Quiet 11 months a year — collapse it when nothing is happening.

The Snowstack (Tyson Millar)

8

Narrative synthesis of the model picture; well received in-thread.

C · link-out card Cred C commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

Substack exposes a public RSS feed — headline + date + link only, never full text.

Tropical Tidbits

8

Levi Cowan's free site — source of most GFS/EPS/AIFS Australia-domain panels posted in-thread.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Highest-frequency chart source in the threads (20+ uploads). Ships as a deep-linked Tier C card until the audit says otherwise — never hotlink the .gif files.

NOAA AI-GFS (experimental) AIGFS · AI-GFS

5

NOAA's experimental AI global model, retrieved direct from NOMADS as GRIB2 and own-rendered rather than borrowed as someone else's chart.

A · own-rendered Cred B model-ai we render it not yet cleared retrievable · not cleared Phase 5 in-progress

Reclassified from "not worth own-rendering". That verdict was about the Tropical Tidbits chart route and was correct for it; the direct NOMADS GRIB2 route is a different proposition — public directory, .idx sidecars, byte-range retrieval, our own rendering, no third party's terms involved. A retrieval adapter exists at scripts/aigfs/ (index parsing, byte-range selection, ecCodes decode, unit tests). It is NOT wired into any page: whether AI-GFS earns panel space is a separate decision, and the republication licence is unaudited, so ingestion stays behind AIGFS_INGEST and nothing renders.

NOAA CPC Extratropics monitoring (CDB)

4

SH extratropical circulation monitoring; cited directly in the KB sticky.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

Pivotal Weather

4

Source of the recurring ECMWF full-res forecast loops and 9-km EC snowfall panels.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Some products now behind Pivotal Plus. Card must not imply free access to paywalled loops.

Meteologix / Kachelmannwetter

3

The "modez" (ECMWF) Australian panels, sub-seasonal anomaly charts and rapid-update animations.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only not yet cleared Phase 1 live

500 hPa spaghetti (Southern Hemisphere)

2

Classic SH 500 hPa spaghetti; posted occasionally for ensemble agreement at range.

C · link-out card Cred B model-ensemble link-out only embed refused Phase 3 backlog

Host is ambiguous in-thread (`spag_f192_shbg.gif`). Audit must identify the actual origin before this ships at all.

Mountainwatch / "the Grasshopper"

2

Expert forecaster commentary; season outlooks and weekly forecasts read by the same audience.

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

Snowatch

2

Dedicated AU snow forecaster; long-range outlooks and season tracking.

C · link-out card Cred C commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

ECCC GEPS GEPS · Canadian ensemble

0

A fourth independent ensemble system, alongside ECMWF IFS ENS/AIFS ENS and GEFS — coarser grid, but a genuinely separate model family.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

0.5° (~50 km) grid — the coarsest product rendered on either ensemble page, with adjacent resorts routinely sharing one grid cell. 21 members (control + 20). Verified live 2026-08-02: temperature_2m, precipitation, snowfall and snowfall_water_equivalent all present and non-null to hour 384 at Perisher coordinates. Deterministic GEM (gem_global) is out of scope — its storage domain has not initialised since 2026-05-26 and is not rendered anywhere.

ECMWF Open Charts

0

Free official EC/AIFS/ENS charts incl. meteograms and anomaly products — the primary-source alternative to third-party chart sites.

B · embedded Cred A chart-platform embedded Phase 1 in-progress

Highest-value Tier B source: authoritative, CC-BY, replaces the ToS-murky Pivotal/Meteologix panels for synoptic context. Prefer over all of them.

ECMWF Open Data (IFS/AIFS 0.25° GRIB)

0

Raw fields for own-rendered MSLP/precip/thickness maps over an Australian domain.

A · own-rendered Cred A data-api we render it Phase 3 planned

GRIB decoding in a Worker is impractical — use the standalone scheduled Python/ecCodes producer, emitting a canonical-grid JSON artifact for the static site.

NOAA NOMADS / AWS Open Data

0

Raw GFS/GEFS GRIB with byte-range subsetting for the Australian domain.

A · own-rendered Cred A data-api we render it Phase 3 planned

Use the `.idx` byte-range filter — retrieve only the selected full-grid message ranges, then interpolate the Australian domain to the canonical output grid.

Seasonal & climate drivers 22

NOAA CPC AAO / SAM index

15

Daily AAO index plot with GFS/ENS forecast tail — the number the threads quote for "negative SAM event".

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 live

Best Phase 4 target: plain ASCII index series + public domain = own-rendered chart with our own styling, no ToS question at all.

ski.com.au Spencers Creek season thread

15

The season-long snow-depth tracking thread built on the Snowy Hydro readings.

C · link-out card Cred C forum link-out only Phase 2 planned

ECMWF ENS / EPS EPS · ensembles

12

The probabilistic backbone; posters police the norm that beyond ~5 days you read spread, not runs.

A · own-rendered Cred A model-ensemble we render it Phase 3 live

Resort-point spread and independent liquid-equivalent precipitation probability are live via Open-Meteo's global ECMWF IFS 0.25° ensemble. Native approximately 9 km ensemble delivery listed for Europe is a geographic forecast domain, not an account or citizenship entitlement, and does not cover Australian resort points. Domain anomaly/map context remains P3-5; UI shows separate spread and probability, never a single member.

BoM Climate Driver Update

9

ENSO/IOD/SAM/MJO status in one official fortnightly bulletin — the Climate Drivers thread's backbone.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

BoM SAM (Southern Annular Mode) page

9

Official SAM commentary — the standard long-range framing device in-thread.

C · link-out card → Tier B pending Cred A climate-index link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 4 planned

Snowy Hydro snow depths (Spencers Creek, Deep Creek, 3 Mile Dam)

9

THE verification dataset for Australian snow — weekly snow-course readings back to 1954 plus newer near-daily instrumentation.

C · link-out card Cred A observations link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 2 planned

Ground truth, and the emotional centre of the season for this community ("Spencers Creek 2026" thread). The historical series makes a current-vs-1954–present percentile chart the single best panel on the site — IF the audit clears reuse. Otherwise: link-out card, no exceptions.

NOAA CPC ENSO diagnostic discussion

8

Monthly ENSO status and Niño 3.4 outlook — background seasonal framing.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

NOAA CPC MJO monitoring

8

RMM phase diagram and the ECMWF MJO forecast page — long-range context alongside SAM.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

The ECMWF-sourced plot on the CPC page is ECMWF's — attribute both.

Stratospheric monitoring / SSW watch

8

SH polar vortex and SSW events materially drive SAM and Australian cold outbreaks; the forum runs a dedicated thread.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

10 hPa zonal-mean wind + temperature is the card. Quiet 11 months a year — collapse it when nothing is happening.

The Snowstack (Tyson Millar)

8

Narrative synthesis of the model picture; well received in-thread.

C · link-out card Cred C commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

Substack exposes a public RSS feed — headline + date + link only, never full text.

Tropical Tidbits

8

Levi Cowan's free site — source of most GFS/EPS/AIFS Australia-domain panels posted in-thread.

C · link-out card Cred B chart-platform link-out only embed refused Phase 1 live

Highest-frequency chart source in the threads (20+ uploads). Ships as a deep-linked Tier C card until the audit says otherwise — never hotlink the .gif files.

Australian snowpack & SAM literature

5

Peer-reviewed anchors the forum itself cites — projected snowpack decline; SAM/rainfall relationships.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

NOAA CPC Extratropics monitoring (CDB)

4

SH extratropical circulation monitoring; cited directly in the KB sticky.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

NOAA OSPO SST anomaly maps

4

Sea-surface-temperature anomalies underpinning ENSO/IOD discussion.

B · embedded Cred A climate-index embedded Phase 4 planned

Aeris Spatial blog

2

Publishes an annual Australian snow outlook; same ecosystem as AerisCast.

C · link-out card Cred C commentary link-out only Phase 4 backlog

CanSIPS seasonal temperature anomaly (AU)

2

Second seasonal opinion alongside CFSv2.

C · link-out card Cred B model-seasonal link-out only embed refused Phase 4 planned

CFSv2 seasonal temperature anomaly (AU)

2

Monthly/seasonal temp-anomaly panels posted when discussing winter prospects.

C · link-out card Cred B model-seasonal link-out only embed refused Phase 4 planned

Underlying CFSv2 is US-gov public domain but the rendered panel is Tropical Tidbits' — audit gates the embed.

Mountainwatch / "the Grasshopper"

2

Expert forecaster commentary; season outlooks and weekly forecasts read by the same audience.

C · link-out card Cred B commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

ski.com.au community index-prediction models

2

Home-grown NINO3.4/SOI/SAM/IOD prediction threads — colour, not authority, but proof of appetite for exactly this content.

C · link-out card Cred C community-tool link-out only Phase 4 backlog

Snowatch

2

Dedicated AU snow forecaster; long-range outlooks and season tracking.

C · link-out card Cred C commentary link-out only Phase 4 planned

BoM ACCESS-S2 seasonal outlooks

0

Official AU seasonal rainfall/temperature probabilities.

C · link-out card Cred A model-seasonal link-out only embed refused not cleared Phase 4 planned

NOAA PSL map room & composites

0

Reanalysis composites and SH teleconnection tools for analog work.

C · link-out card Cred A climate-index link-out only Phase 4 backlog

Reference shelf 12

NWS JetStream online school

20

The community's recommended intro course, including the long-/short-wave page.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

NWS thickness / temperature training

20

1000–500 hPa thickness ↔ snow level — the exact rule our own snow-level panel encodes.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

Link this from the snow-level panel's "how is this calculated?" disclosure. Methodology transparency is the whole point.

ski.com.au Snow Forecasting & Weather Knowledge Base (sticky)

20

The community's own curriculum — the spine of our reference shelf.

D · reference shelf Cred B education reference link Phase 0 planned

BoM aviation weather glossary

10

Terminology reference.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

Dendritic growth zone explainer

10

Snowflake microphysics — why -12 to -18 °C makes the good powder.

D · reference shelf Cred C education reference link Phase 0 planned

Weather model resolution explainer

10

Why 9-km EC ≠ 25-km GFS — the most common misreading in the threads.

D · reference shelf Cred C education reference link Phase 0 planned

WikiSki — About Snow

10

Australia-specific snow lore wiki.

D · reference shelf Cred C education reference link Phase 0 planned

4DVAR data-assimilation lecture notes (OU CAPS)

5

Deeper theory — posted in-thread to explain data assimilation.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

AI-NWP & verification literature (FourCastNet, Met Office verification, IBM GRAF)

5

The reading behind the community's AIFS scepticism-and-curiosity.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

Australian snowpack & SAM literature

5

Peer-reviewed anchors the forum itself cites — projected snowpack decline; SAM/rainfall relationships.

D · reference shelf Cred A education reference link Phase 0 planned

NIWA & MetService (NZ)

0

The trans-Tasman flank of the same synoptic systems.

D · reference shelf Cred A agency reference link Phase 5 backlog

NOAA PSL map room & composites

0

Reanalysis composites and SH teleconnection tools for analog work.

C · link-out card Cred A climate-index link-out only Phase 4 backlog