Current snow level, 5-day forecast, main peaks and ski resort status in Sierra de Tramuntana. Highest peak: Puig Major (1445 m).
| Peak | Elevation | Lat/Lon | Status vs snow level |
|---|
The Tramuntana range is the main mountain system of the Balearic Islands, running 90 km in northwestern Mallorca with peaks up to 1445 m at Puig Major. Snow is rare but recurrent, associated with maritime polar or continental cold outbreaks crossing the Mediterranean. Typical snow level is 800-1200 m, with extraordinary drops to 200 m: January 2018, Lluc snowed at 500 m; February 2012, historical snowfall with 0.5 m at Puig Major. The season is limited to December, January and February, with an annual average of 3-5 days with snow on the summits. The maximum recorded depth exceeds 1 m in March 1956 (absolute record for the archipelago). No ski resorts or snow infrastructure exist. Avalanche risk is zero. Snow rarely persists more than 48 hours due to Mediterranean influence, but its arrival causes traffic jams on the Ma-10 road and school closures in Escorca, Soller and Pollensa. The range is a UNESCO World Heritage site (2011) for its cultural landscape of terraces built over centuries to capture runoff, preserving endemic species such as the ferreret toad.
The Tramuntana runs the length of northern Mallorca and acts as a wall against the wind that gives it its name. Its summits reach around 1,400 metres, just enough for Arctic air incursions to leave snow on a few days a year on the Puig Major and Massanella. It is a rare and much-photographed event, precisely because it lasts so briefly.
Between December and March the 0 °C isotherm over the Serra de Tramuntana sits on average at 1,991 metres. With the summit at 1,445 metres, on only about 52 winter days does the level drop far enough for snow up top. Further down things change fast: the level drops below 2,000 metres on about 109 days each winter, below 1,500 on about 59, and reaches 1,000 metres or less on 9.
The coldest episode of the 30-year series was on 27 January 2005, with the level at 409 metres.
It is the underlying question in any range with a ski resort, and the series answers it. The mean winter snow level over the Serra de Tramuntana went from 2,010 metres in 1995-2004 to 2,044 metres in 2015-2024. The rise is small, 34 metres, but it points the same way as everywhere else.
The month with the lowest level is January. The curve rising towards summer says how long the season really lasts here.
| Mean level (m) | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tramuntana | 1,867 | 1,884 | 2,160 | 2,524 | 3,089 | 3,773 | 4,209 | 4,231 | 3,716 | 3,195 | 2,470 | 2,045 |
The snow level is the height at which the temperature crosses 0 °C. Here it comes from ERA5, the reanalysis produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, downloaded from the Copernicus Climate Data Store under a CC-BY licence: hourly temperature over the Serra de Tramuntana between 1995-01-01 and 2024-12-06, 30 complete years, extrapolated with the standard lapse rate of 6.5 °C per kilometre from the height of the model cell, which here is 184 metres.
Two caveats worth keeping in mind. The first is that ERA5 smooths the mountain: its cell represents 184 metres where the real summit reaches 1,445, so it describes the air mass well but not the specific terrain. The second is that what is computed is the 0 °C isotherm, which is the theoretical ceiling: snow usually starts to settle 200 to 300 metres below it, because the first flakes cool the air as they melt and pull the real level down. For going into the mountains, AEMET’s official forecast always takes precedence.
