Whether snow or ice is forecast on Khardung La, Chang La and the highway passes, read at each summit's real elevation — with the official road channels for each.
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Leh sits at 3,524 m in the Indus valley, but every road out of town crosses a summit well above 4,900 m — and the weather up there decides the day. This page reads the forecast at each pass summit itself, downscaled to its elevation: whether snow is coming, how low the snow line is dropping, and whether a cold wet night could ice the road. Elevations are from OpenStreetMap surveys rather than the famous signboards, which overstate some summits.
Snow forecast on the passes.
Modelled forecast, as of Sun 02:43. Refreshed about every half hour.
Snow forecast.
About 2 cm forecast over the next day and a half.
Snow line dropping to about 5,250 m — at or below the 5,359 m summit.
Carry chains.
The pass to Diskit and the Nubra valley, about 39 km from town — kept open year-round but closed after every snowfall until cleared.
Road status: District Administration, LehClosure and clearing announcements for the district's roads.
Snow forecast.
About 5 cm forecast over the next day and a half.
Snow line dropping to about 5,050 m — at or below the 5,383 m summit.
Carry chains.
The pass to Durbuk, Tangtse and Pangong Tso — like Khardung La, open year-round in principle and shut by every snowfall in practice.
Road status: District Administration, LehClosure and clearing announcements for the district's roads.
Snow forecast.
About 2 cm forecast over the next day and a half.
Snow line dropping to about 5,000 m — at or below the 5,328 m summit.
Carry chains.
The highest summit on the Manali–Leh highway's Ladakh side; the highway typically runs May/June to September/October.
Road status: How to reach Leh (district administration)The official page on road access and the highways' seasonal windows.
Snow forecast.
Snow line dropping to about 4,900 m — at or below the 4,928 m summit.
Carry chains.
The Manali–Leh highway's snowiest choke point, on the Himachal side of the route — often the first to close and the last to clear.
Road status: How to reach Leh (district administration)The official page on road access and the highways' seasonal windows.
Cold on the tops — no snow forecast.
Snow line staying around 4,600 m, above the 3,528 m summit.
The Srinagar–Leh highway's choke point — the lowest pass here, but the most exposed to Kashmir's wet snow. Traditionally closed all winter; BRO kept it open through winter 2025–26 for the first time on record.
Road status: District Administration, LehHighway opening and closure notices for the district.
This shows the weather over the tops, not whether the road is open
Khardung La and Chang La are kept open year-round, but every significant snowfall closes them until BRO and the army finish clearing — in season that usually means hours to a day, in winter sometimes much longer. A clear forecast at the summit is the best sign a planned crossing will hold.
Khardung La's famous signboard claims a higher elevation than the pass actually has; modern surveys put the summit at about 5,359 m. This page uses OpenStreetMap's surveyed coordinates and elevations for all five passes, so the forecast is read for the real summit, not the legend.
Snow forecast on a pass is not an avalanche assessment. Official avalanche warnings for Ladakh's high roads come from the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE) and are published through SACHET — the same feed this town's Weather Warnings tool reads.
Fetched Sun 02:43. These are modelled estimates for each summit, not measurements, and not a decision about the road. Weather data by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).