Mt. Rainier Webcams
Twelve live Mt. Rainier webcams are streaming below. Five sit at Paradise on the south side of the mountain, two at Sunrise on the north side, one at Longmire, and four look toward Rainier from Tacoma and Seattle. The in-park cameras show what conditions are like on the mountain, while the Tacoma and Seattle cameras answer the question most people are actually asking: is the mountain out today?
Paradise Mountain View
Direct view of the summit from Paradise
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Image courtesy of the National Park Service · Source
Which Mt. Rainier webcam to check, and when
The cameras fall into two categories that answer different questions. Picking the wrong one is the most common reason people come away with a misleading impression of the day.
| Location | Cameras | Answers | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paradise (in-park, south side) | Paradise Mountain View, Tatoosh Range, Paradise East, Paradise West, Jackson Visitor Center | Conditions on the mountain itself, at 5,400 ft | Year round |
| Sunrise (in-park, north side) | Sunrise, Sunrise Parking | The north face from 6,400 ft, 11 km from the summit | Early July to late September |
| Longmire (in-park, lower elevation) | Longmire | Whether the road in from Nisqually is clear | Year round |
| Tacoma (68 km NW) | Tacoma Mountain Cam, Tacoma Tower Cam | Is the mountain out over the city skyline | Year round |
| Seattle (93 to 97 km NNW) | Columbia Tower, Space Needle PanoCam | Whether Rainier is visible from downtown Seattle | Year round |
Why the in-park and skyline cameras disagree
Rainier makes its own weather. The summit reaches 4,392 m, high enough to sit above a marine layer that covers the Puget Sound lowlands, so a Seattle camera can show solid grey on a morning when Paradise is in full sun. The reverse is just as common in autumn, when cloud caps the peak while Tacoma stays clear.
Pierce County built the Tacoma Mountain Cam around exactly this problem. It is the only camera in the set aimed at settling the “is the mountain out” question for people in the city rather than reporting conditions inside the park.
One caveat on the Space Needle feed: it is a 360 degree panorama, so Rainier occupies a narrow slice near the middle of a very wide image rather than filling the frame.
When to check
Early morning, roughly 6 to 9 AM Pacific, is the most informative window. Overnight air is cool and settled, haze has not built up yet, and a clear dawn image usually holds through mid-morning. If you only get one look before deciding whether to drive, make it this one.
Evening, around 5 to 8 PM, is the better check for planning tomorrow. A mountain that is still out at sunset often stays out overnight, and alpenglow on the summit is a reliable sign the atmosphere is unusually clear.
Midday is the least useful. Afternoon haze can flatten the summit into the sky even on a genuinely good day, so a grey 1 PM image says less than you would think.
What a webcam cannot tell you
A camera shows one moment at one spot. It cannot tell you whether the view will hold for the drive down, and it goes blind after dark. For planning a trip, pair the cameras with the Mt. Rainier visibility forecast, which scores conditions from weather data and runs 10 days out. Our methodology page explains how that score is calculated.
All twelve feeds come from their operators directly: the National Park Service, Pierce County Television, KING 5, and the Space Needle. We do not rehost the images.
Mt. Rainier webcam FAQ
Which Mt. Rainier webcam shows the mountain itself?
The Paradise Mountain View camera points straight at the summit from inside the park, and the Sunrise camera covers the north side from 6,400 feet. For a distant view, the Tacoma Mountain Cam is the strongest option: Pierce County runs it specifically to show whether Rainier is out above the Tacoma skyline.
Are the Mount Rainier webcams live?
The National Park Service cameras are still images that refresh every few minutes, and this page reloads them every 60 seconds. The Tacoma Mountain Cam is a continuous 1080p video stream. None of these are archived clips, so what you see is current conditions.
Why is the Mt. Rainier webcam showing only grey?
Cloud frequently sits below the summit, so a Paradise camera can show flat grey while the mountain is perfectly visible from Seattle, and the reverse happens just as often. Check one in-park camera and one lowland camera together before you conclude anything. The cameras also go dark overnight, since none of them have night vision.
Do the Sunrise webcams work in winter?
No. Sunrise Road is seasonal, open roughly from early July to late September, and both Sunrise cameras go offline once it closes. The Paradise, Longmire, Tacoma and Seattle cameras run year round.