Mukteshwar under deep snow, 5 February 2022. Photo © Itsmeehul, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
What the dated reports say about snow here, how cold the days and nights get, what a fall does to the ridge roads, and what a room costs in December and January.
The short answer: yes, Mukteshwar gets snow in most winters, but only on a few days, and some falls are over in minutes. In the winters we could date, up to four feet lay around the ridge by 5 February 2022, snow fell for ten minutes on 22 February 2024, heavily on 12 January 2025, and on the evening of 23 January 2026. So late January to mid-February is the window to plan around, and December is a trip for the cold and the views. IMD’s normals give January days of about 12°C and nights of about 1.7°C. The temple ridge is about 70 km and about three hours from Haldwani, and the ridge roads can shut for a morning or longer after a fall, so stay at least one night and keep a spare morning.
By Deepa Pant, Contributor, Haldwani. About the author ↓
Most of this page holds good every year. The things below change from season to season, so they sit here with the day we checked them.
Winter 2026-27 so far
Snow here does not keep a calendar, and most travel pages give you only “late December to February”. The table sets out what dated local reports say. We have left out 2022-23 because we did not find a dated report we could trust, and reports rarely measure the depth at Mukteshwar itself.
| Winter | Snow at Mukteshwar | What fell | What happened to the road |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | By 5 February 2022 | Up to four feet across Mukteshwar, Dhanachuli, Managher, Pahadpani and Bhatelia | Bhowali to Ramgarh and Mukteshwar on the closed list with six other roads; all rural roads around Mukteshwar blocked |
| 2023-24 | 22 February 2024, about 2 pm | Light snow for ten minutes; apple growers who had waited three months called it too little | No closure in the reports we found |
| 2024-25 | 12 January 2025, early morning | Heavy snow with Dhanachuli, Pahadpani and Ramgarh; no depth published | Bhatelia to Mukteshwar and Dhanachuli cleared by PWD machines; near Managher traffic stopped at about 6 am and moved again by 11 am |
| 2025-26 | 23 January 2026, evening | The season’s first, with Ramgarh, Dhanachuli and Managher; no depth published | On 24 January the SDRF and a JCB got 20 to 25 vehicles out at Dhanachuli Band |
Three things stand out. All four falls came between 12 January and 22 February, so that is the stretch to aim for. The amount varies enormously, from four feet to ten minutes, which is why nobody can honestly promise you snow on a given weekend. And the time of day tells you nothing: these falls came in the early morning, at two in the afternoon and in the evening, so “Mukteshwar snowfall time” has no real answer beyond the season.
December is the month people hope for and the one that disappoints. We found no report of snow at Mukteshwar itself in December 2023, 2024 or 2025. The closest was on 9 December 2024, when snow fell for about half an hour from 5 am at Dhanachuli and Pahadpani, and the sun had melted it by about nine. There can be surprises at the other end of the year too: on 25 October 2023 about twenty minutes of hail came with light snow at Mukteshwar on an afternoon that stayed sunny at Bhimtal and Bhowali.
Height is the reason Mukteshwar does better than the towns below it. The district and IMD put it at 2,286 m, about 200 m above Nainital town, and researchers at Nainital’s Aryabhatta institute said in January 2025 that snow now falls mainly above 2,000 m. Mukteshwar is on the right side of that line, but not by much. For the wider pattern, our guide to Uttarakhand in winter sets this beside the rest of the state, and where to see snow in Uttarakhand ranks the places by how often it has come.
The way to catch it is to watch the forecast and not the calendar. Snow arrives with the western disturbances that bring winter rain, so when one is forecast, the morning after the weather clears is the one to be on the ridge. That is much easier from a room in Mukteshwar, or from Haldwani three hours away, than from Delhi with a fixed return ticket.
Mukteshwar has something few hill towns have: its own IMD observatory with current normals, so these are measured figures for the 30 years from 1991 to 2020 and not a model.
| Month | Average day | Average night | Rain | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | 17.2°C | 6.1°C | 7.9 mm | 0.7 |
| December | 14.4°C | 3.6°C | 17.7 mm | 1.1 |
| January | 12.1°C | 1.7°C | 45.6 mm | 3.0 |
| February | 13.5°C | 2.7°C | 68.1 mm | 4.2 |
The last two columns explain the snow table above. There is almost no winter rain before January, and snow is that same rain falling on colder ground. The averages also hide how much the sun matters: around 10 January 2025, two days before the big fall, IMD recorded a high of 17°C and a low of 2.8°C. A clear afternoon on a terrace can feel like spring, and the same terrace is close to freezing by dinner.
For today’s temperature, use the live forecast on the snowfall tracker, because no page written in advance can tell you that. Pack layers you can take off in the sun: a thermal layer, a fleece and a proper down or padded jacket, with a cap, gloves and thick socks for the evenings. Bring shoes with a real grip, because temple steps and shaded paths ice over.
These are Google Maps figures read on 6 November 2026 to the temple gate, with no allowance for stops. Our Haldwani to Mukteshwar guide uses 68 km to the town and takes you along the road stage by stage, so we will not repeat that here.
| From | Distance | Google Maps time |
|---|---|---|
| Haldwani bus stand | 69.2 to 72.7 km | 3 hr 17 min to 3 hr 21 min |
| Kathgodam station | 63.8 to 67.3 km | 3 hr to 3 hr 5 min |
| Nainital, Tallital | 48.8 km | 2 hr 11 min |
| Kainchi Dham | 43.2 to 46.1 km | 2 hr 4 min to 2 hr 8 min |
| Almora bus stand | 44.1 km | 1 hr 54 min |
| Jageshwar Dham | 79.5 km | 3 hr 2 min |
| Delhi, India Gate | 363 km | 8 hr 34 min |
The main road up from Haldwani to Bhowali rarely shuts for snow. The trouble starts on the ridge beyond Ramgarh, and on the side roads to Dhanachuli and Pahadpani. Those are what the snow table shows closing: for a morning after an ordinary fall, as in January 2025, and for longer after a big one, as in February 2022, when seven roads in the district were on the closed list together. Machines clear the main ones first, and the side road to your cottage may come last.
So drive up after the sun is on the road. In January 2025 sunshine reached the Managher stretch at about 9:30 am and traffic was moving by 11. Come down before dark, because what melts in the afternoon freezes again on shaded bends. If you are in a small car and snow fell overnight, wait or take a local taxi. Our guide to driving in Uttarakhand in winter covers chains, black ice and what to do at a police barrier.
A day trip from Haldwani means about six hours on the road and very little daylight to spare in January. It is possible when the road is clear, but it is the wrong way to chase snow, because you can only leave once you know the road has opened. One night makes the trip easy, and two let you wait out a forecast.
KMOU, the local bus company, lists two buses from Haldwani on its booking page, leaving at 07:00 and 15:15 and reaching Mukteshwar at 10:45 and 19:00, for Rs 200. It times the run at 3 hours 45 minutes. We would take the morning one in winter, because the afternoon bus does the last part of the ridge in the dark. The overnight Ranikhet Express from Delhi reaches Kathgodam at about 05:05, which leaves time to get to the 07:00 bus. Our guide to the Delhi to Kathgodam train has the three daily trains and what fog does to them.
A taxi costs far more but can wait for the road and turn back if it has to. Our route guide puts a sedan from Haldwani at Rs 2,800 to Rs 3,500 one way. Pantnagar is the nearest airport, 110 km away by the district’s figure, and leaves the whole climb still to do.
Mukteshwar is mostly small resorts, cottages and homestays spread along the ridge and not a town full of hotels, so you will often need the car or a walk to reach the temple. The rates below were shown online on 6 November 2026 for one night for two people. They are the lowest price shown that day and not a promise, and they may or may not include breakfast or tax. The KMVN figure comes from its own booking page and includes meals, so it is not a like-for-like match. Properties run in order of their Google rating, and none of them pays to be listed here.
| Property | Google rating (reviews) | 19 December | 16 January |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Mukteshwar Manor | 4.9 (133) | Rs 2,693 | Rs 1,995 |
| Captains Paradise | 4.9 (393) | Rs 3,971 | Rs 3,060 |
| Hotel Montana Crowne Residency | 4.8 (345) | Rs 1,496 | Not shown |
| Mukteshwar Treat Resort | 4.7 (435) | Rs 2,841 | Rs 2,892 |
| Himalayas Resort by The Lake Hill | 4.6 (1,700) | Rs 2,302 | Rs 2,777 |
| The Foliage | 4.6 (125) | Rs 2,363 | Rs 2,835 |
| The Golden Peak | 4.4 (351) | Rs 3,675 | Rs 2,820 |
| Ojaswi Himalayan Resort | 4.4 (1,700) | Rs 8,956 | Rs 7,665 |
| KMVN Tourist Rest House, Semi Deluxe double (with meals) | own booking page | Rs 3,844 | Rs 3,844 |
Both dates are Saturdays, and the second falls in the best stretch for snow, yet several rates were lower in January than in December, and the rest rose by only a few hundred rupees. New Year is where the rupees go: KMVN’s Semi Deluxe double rose from Rs 3,844 to Rs 4,313 for 31 December. Its other doubles ran from Rs 4,126 to Rs 5,250 on 16 January. KMVN’s rooms come on a meal plan with breakfast and one other meal, so ask which, and ask whether tax is extra, because we stopped short of the payment page.
Before you pay, check the map, because a place listed under Mukteshwar can be well down the road towards Dhanachuli or Satkhol. That matters on a snowy morning, when the last kilometre may be a side road nobody has cleared yet. Then ask about the cold, because a good rating earned in May says little about January. Ask whether a room heater is provided and what it costs, whether it runs when the power goes, when there is hot water and how many blankets come with the room. Power is a fair question here: the February 2022 snow brought down trees and lines in Nainital and left the town without power or water for 36 hours.
Most people come for the view, and winter is when it is clearest. KMVN describes the line from Nampa in Nepal to Chaukhamba in Garhwal, and it is at its sharpest on the morning after weather has passed through. On that same morning the orchards and the deodar slopes hold whatever fell overnight.
The Mukteshwar Dham temple sits on top of the ridge, and the Chauli ki Jali rock face is just below it. Take the temple steps and the rock with respect after frost or snow, and skip the rock altogether if it is icy. The Indian Veterinary Research Institute, on whose campus the temple stands, dates from 1893. Ramgarh and Dhanachuli are the two stops on the way in, and both have had snow on the same days as Mukteshwar. Be ready for a quiet place: what you do here in January is sit in the sun, walk and wait for the weather to change.
If you are in Haldwani, Rudrapur or Bareilly and can leave the day a forecast looks good, Mukteshwar and the peaks above Nainital are your two nearest chances, and this is the quieter of them. If you are coming from Delhi on fixed dates and snow is the whole point, the surer places are much further: Munsiyari is a ten-hour drive beyond Haldwani, and Auli is a long day or two from the plains. If you want snow views and a good room more than snow underfoot, our winter honeymoon guide compares Mukteshwar with Nainital, Binsar and Kausani.
A night here also fits a longer trip. Almora is 44 km and about two hours on, and Jageshwar Dham is about three hours by the Devidhura road, which makes a good second stop in a cold, quiet week. Going the other way, Kainchi Dham and the lakes around it are about two hours back down the ridge.
We could not find a dated snow report for Mukteshwar in the winter of 2022-23, or a published depth for the falls of 2025 and 2026. We did not find a count of snow days from the observatory, so the table above is a list of reported falls and may have missed small ones. Guides differ on the height of the town, because 2,286 m is the ridge while many stays are lower. We could not find a notice saying KMOU’s bus keeps its timing after snow, or the times of its return buses.
The distances here are from Google Maps, the room rates are what was shown online on the day, and the snow record comes from dated local news reports. Nobody from this site telephoned a hotel or the bus company for this page. If you have been to Mukteshwar this winter and something has changed, please tell us.
Yes, in most winters, but only on a few days. We have dated falls on 5 February 2022, when up to four feet lay around the ridge, on 22 February 2024, when it lasted ten minutes, on 12 January 2025 and on 23 January 2026. If snow is the whole point of the trip, keep your dates loose.
Late January and February. All four of the falls we could date at Mukteshwar itself came between 12 January and 22 February, and IMD’s normals show why: January has about three rainy days and February about four, against about one in December.
Rarely, going by recent winters. We found no report of snow at Mukteshwar itself in December 2023, 2024 or 2025. The nearest was half an hour at Dhanachuli and Pahadpani on the morning of 9 December 2024, gone by about nine. Treat December as a trip for the cold and the mountain views.
IMD’s 1991 to 2020 normals give about 12°C by day and about 1.7°C at night, which makes January the coldest month. A clear day can feel warmer: IMD recorded 17°C and 2.8°C around 10 January 2025. Bring proper layers and ask about a room heater when you book.
Yes. People live here all year and hotels take guests through the winter; KMVN’s rest house was selling rooms for December and January when we read its booking page on 6 November 2026. The road is the part that can stop you, for a morning or longer after a fall.
Usually within hours or a day, but not at first light. On 12 January 2025 PWD machines cleared the Bhatelia to Mukteshwar road, and near Managher traffic stopped at about 6 am and moved again by 11 am. After the far heavier fall of February 2022 the Bhowali to Mukteshwar road was on the closed list. Wait for the sun and ask locally.
Usually, because it stands about 200 m higher, at 2,286 m against about 2,000 m for Nainital town. In February 2022 up to four feet lay around Mukteshwar, in a storm that also turned Nainital white. The peaks above Nainital, such as Naina Peak and Kilbury, get snow as often and are closer to the lake.