Powder Hound

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that finds the best ski resort snow conditions worldwide and searches for upcoming flights to get there.

What It Does

Ask natural language questions like "Where is the best snow right now?" and get back:

• Ski resorts ranked by recent snowfall, forecast snowfall, or both combined
• Day-by-day weather conditions including temperatures and wind speed
• 7-day snow forecasts using high-resolution regional weather models
• Elevation-aware predictions tuned to mid-mountain altitude
• Upcoming flights from your departure city

MCP Tools

Tool	Description
find_best_snow	Ranks 2,200+ resorts worldwide by recent snowfall, forecast snowfall, or both combined (sort_by). Configurable lookback period (days_back). Filter by region and resort size.
get_resort_conditions	Detailed day-by-day snowfall, temperature, and wind forecast for a specific resort.
search_flights	Search for direct flights from your airport to a resort's nearest airport.
flight_info	Get full details (departure time, arrival time, status) for a specific flight.

Resort Coverage

Resort data is fetched dynamically from OpenStreetMap, covering 2,200+ ski resorts worldwide. Small non-resort areas (tubing hills, sledding parks) and abandoned sites are filtered out. Each resort is automatically matched to its nearest major airport and has real ground elevation data from SRTM.

• US (~422 resorts) — Vail, Mammoth, Killington, and more
• Japan (~276 resorts) — Niseko, Hakuba, and more
• France (~217 resorts) — Chamonix, Val d'Isere, and more
• Switzerland (~201 resorts) — Saas Fee, Zermatt, and more
• Austria (~195 resorts) — St. Anton, Kitzbuhel, and more
• Italy (~156 resorts) — Cortina d'Ampezzo, Courmayeur, Livigno, and more
• Canada (~142 resorts) — Whistler, Revelstoke, and more
• Norway (~77 resorts) — Trysil, Hemsedal, Kvitfjell, and more

Plus resorts in Germany, Sweden, Spain, New Zealand, Argentina, and many more countries.

Weather Accuracy

Snowfall data uses region-specific high-resolution weather models matched to each resort's location:

Region	Model	Resolution
France	Meteo-France AROME	1.3 km
Central Europe (DE, AT, CH, IT)	DWD ICON-D2	2 km
Canada	GEM	2.5 km
US	GFS/HRRR	3 km
Japan	JMA MSM	5 km
Other	Open-Meteo Global	11 km

Each resort's forecast is queried at an estimated mid-station elevation using region-specific alpine offsets, improving snow vs. rain prediction accuracy at altitude.

APIs Used

API	Purpose	API Key Required?
Open-Meteo	Snow and weather data (regional models)	No
OpenStreetMap Overpass	Ski resort database	No
Open Elevation	Resort ground elevation (SRTM)	No
OurAirports	Airport database (bundled CSV)	No
AeroDataBox (via RapidAPI)	Flight schedules and routes	Yes (free tier, 600 units/month)

Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.14+
• uv package manager

Install

git clone <repo-url>
cd Powder-Hound
uv sync

Configure API Keys

Set your AeroDataBox API key as an environment variable or in a .env file:

AERODATABOX_API_KEY=your_rapidapi_key_here

Get a free key by subscribing to AeroDataBox on RapidAPI.

Snow conditions work without any API key. The flight search requires an AeroDataBox key.

Free tier limitations: 600 API units/month (not requests — endpoints cost 1-60 units each). Rate limited to 1 request/second. Future flight schedules available up to 365 days out but may show fewer results than day-of. Each flight search uses 2 calls (two 12-hour windows). No overages — once your monthly units are used, requests will fail until the next billing cycle. Only direct flights are returned — connecting itineraries are not currently supported.

Run

Development (MCP Inspector):

uv run mcp dev src/main.py

Install in Claude Desktop:

uv run mcp install src/main.py

Or manually add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "powder-hound": {
      "command": "your_uv_path_here",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/Powder-Hound", "src/main.py"],
      "env": {
        "AERODATABOX_API_KEY": "your_rapidapi_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

• "Where is the best snow right now?"
• "Which resorts in Japan got the most snow this week?"
• "What are conditions like at Whistler?"
• "Find me flights from SFO to ski resorts with fresh snow"
• "Best snow forecast in Europe for the next 7 days?"
• "Top 5 resorts by total snowfall this week and next"