Get a near-real-time view of the land to help better understand current conditions.

See if there is snow on a certain trail or mountain area, and how the landscape actually looks like within the last few days. The satellite data from the Sentinel-2 satellite constellation is available globally, updated approximately every 3-5 days, with the ability to view imagery up to 30 days in the past.

Exclusively available for OpenSnow Premium.

Layer Options

1. Recent Satellite
2. Recent Satellite + Snow
3. Recent Satellite + Snow/Cloud

Example: Lake Tahoe, February 27 - March 24, 2026

Getting Started

1. Tap the "Maps" tab.
2. Tap the overlay button.
3. Tap "Land Details".
4. Select any "Recent Satellite" overlay.
5. Play or scrub the bottom slider.

Recent Satellite

The base layer displays true-color satellite imagery — what the landscape actually looks like from space. Multiple recent passes are composited together, filling in gaps with the newest available imagery first, so you get a seamless view without missing patches.

Use this layer to see current terrain conditions at a glance: how much snow is on the ground, whether roads and trails are clear, and the overall state of the landscape.

View → Recent Satellite

Recent Satellite + Snow

This layer adds a blue snow overlay on top of the base satellite imagery. Snow is detected using the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI).

Use this layer to understand the distribution of snow on roads and trails, including where it's melted.

The blue shading does not capture all snow areas, so trust your instincts if the image looks snowy but is not shaded in blue.

View → Recent Satellite + Snow

Recent Satellite + Snow/Cloud

This layer highlights both snow and cloud cover on top of the satellite imagery.  Cloud detection identifies medium clouds, high clouds, and thin cirrus at 20-meter resolution.

Use this layer to clearly distinguish snow-covered terrain from cloud cover, which can otherwise look similar in satellite imagery. This is especially helpful for assessing snowpack extent and identifying which slopes and elevations are holding snow.

View → Recent Satellite + Snow/Clouds

Known Limitations

Our Recent Satellite Maps are less detailed than our Satellite map. The benefit of these maps is to provide much more recent captures than our standard Satellite map, to enable assessment of rapidly changing conditions.

Areas with persistent cloud cover may show completely white imagery for several adjacent time steps. Continue selecting older time steps until a clearer image appears.

Images from up to 6 days prior to the selected time step are composited together to create the map for a particular time step. In some places, an image older than the date selected may be required. The date range is stamped on each tile so you can see how current the data is.

Snow detection works best at higher elevations and in open terrain. Dense forest canopy can obscure snow on the ground, leading to missing snow identifications.

Cloud and snow can occasionally be confused in the classification, particularly thin cirrus and high-altitude snowfields. The Snow/Cloud layer helps distinguish these, but edge cases exist.

Sentinel-2 revisit time is approximately 5 days at the equator and more frequent at higher latitudes, so imagery may not reflect conditions from the last 24 hours.

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Questions? Send an email to [email protected] and we'll respond within 24 hours. You can also visit our Support Center to view more frequently asked questions and feature guides.

Sam Collentine