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Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort — Rain Susceptibility

Based on 1986-87 through 2025-26 (40 ski seasons) of historical ERA5-Land weather data.

Score version: RSS_V5_PERCENTILE_COMPOSITE_DEC1_APR15_1986_2026 · calculated Sep 27, 2026 · dataset: reanalysis-era5-land-timeseries

Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort
Rain Susceptibility Score
(0=low, 100=high)
18
Rain Resilience Score 82
Overall Confidence MODERATE
Percentile: future rain (+2°C)16.0
Percentile: conversion exposure (+2°C)19.2
Percentile: significant rain days (+2°C)20.1
ERA5 grid location39.4, -107.3 — grid elevation 2355 m
Ski-season precip climatology273 mm/season across 711 precip hours/season

Observed history: 1986-87 to 2025-26

Not a stress test — this is the actual real weather record, at the same elevations, with no synthetic warming applied. Compare its size to the hypothetical +1/+2/+3°C scenarios below to see how much warming has already happened vs. how much more the stress tests represent.

Each point is one real ski season's precip-weighted rain fraction — not smoothed or averaged, so year-to-year variability (a wet La Niña year, a dry cycle, etc.) is visible directly rather than hidden inside a multi-year average.

Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort
1986-87 to 2005-06 (first half avg.)1.86%
2006-07 to 2025-26 (second half avg.)2.52%
Observed change (half-vs-half average)+0.65% points

Rain fraction by elevation band and warming scenario

Precipitation-weighted share of ski-season precipitation estimated to fall as rain, not snow.

Band Elevation vs. grid elev. Confidence Current +1°C +2°C +3°C
Base 2403 m 48 m GOOD 4.1% 8.4% 15.0% 23.6%
Mid 2710 m 354 m GOOD 1.2% 2.8% 6.0% 11.4%
Summit 3016 m 661 m MODERATE 0.4% 0.8% 1.8% 3.9%

Rain fraction vs. warming, by elevation band

Underlying conditions during precipitation (geeky detail)

Precip-weighted distribution of wet-bulb temperature, dry-bulb temperature, and relative humidity during ski-season precipitation hours -- the actual data behind the rain fraction above, plus the phase curve applied to it. Not used in scoring; here purely for transparency.

Wet-bulb temperature (with phase curve overlaid)

Dry-bulb temperature

Relative humidity