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

Related MCP server: open-meteo-mcp

MCP Tools

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:

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

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"