Joel Gratz is Founding Meteorologist and CEO of OpenSnow, a weather platform used by hundreds of thousands of skiers, snowboarders, and outdoor enthusiasts to track snow conditions and forecast powder days. What started as a text thread among friends has grown into a profitable, bootstrapped business combining expert forecasting, data science, and increasingly AI-driven weather models.
In this episode of Inevitable, Gratz breaks down one of the worst Western snowpack seasons on record and why he believes it’s not as simple as blaming climate change.
The conversation explores the role of atmospheric variability versus long-term warming trends, why temperature matters more than precipitation for snowpack, and how mountain weather forecasting differs from traditional forecasts.
Finally, Gratz explains why emotional connection, not just accuracy, is what makes niche weather businesses work.
Episode recorded April 9, 2026 (published April 28, 2026)
In this episode, we cover:
- (0:00) An overview of OpenSnow
- (1:45) Weather conditions aren’t just a climate change story
- (4:46) How warming temperatures impact snowpack quality
- (7:20) What OpenSnow is and how it started
- (12:46) OpenSnow’s business model and growth
- (16:26) Why mountain weather is harder to forecast
- (21:16) How OpenSnow builds better forecasts from shared data
- (25:01) Powder quality vs snowfall: what actually matters
- (30:01) Snowpack as a water “battery” for the West
- (32:45) How ski resorts are adapting to climate variability
- (37:46) The reality of cloud seeding and weather modification
- (42:23) How emotional connection has helped OpenSnow succeed
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
