Old Man Winter takes it coast to coast!

We are going to have a good week of winter weather across the US brining new snow to almost every resort region and some potentially heavy dumps of new powder across the NE states and along the West Coast.

Check out the current NOAA national weather map…you can see the first couple of low-pressures that are doing the initial snowmaking.



Over in the NE states we have a nice solid low pressure that is pulling a grip of moisture out of the Great Lakes and dredging up a bunch of warmer (and more dynamic) energy from the SE states. It is getting pushed along by mild but building ridge of high-pressure along the Midwest…so while it won’t stick around long it is going to be pretty energetic. Current forecasts are showing it dropping nearly 2-feet of new powder for many of the resorts in the area and potentially larger snowfalls in a few select areas.

Here are a few of the resorts in the area…and the snowfall that is expected for the next couple of days.

Whiteface: 6-8"

Sugarbush Resort: 8-12"

Black Mountain: 10-15"

Long-range it looks like the weak high-pressure in the middle of the country is going to break down pretty fast and let a mix of new storms move through the mid-latitudes by Wednesday, which will continue all the way up through next weekend. It means that ski resort conditions won’t be stellar but there will be some consistent new snow (just adding to everyone’s base and potentially extending the ski/snowboard season)…and some potentially heavier activity as we head into next weekend (beginning of March).



Over on the West Coast we have some lovely storms lining up “out-back” in the Pacific…in fact one of them is starting to edge over California/Pacific NW today. We can expect this new storm to send heavy rains to the Oregon/California border, more normal rain throughout the rest of the region and new snow to the Sierras.

Current forecasts are expecting some decent snowfall totals for the next couple of days. Mammoth, for example, is going to have another 5-6” through Mon-Tues.

The heaviest snow for the West Coast from this storm looks like it is going to center around the spots near Tahoe and further up toward Shasta. At this point it looks like they could have another 8-10” of new snow and potentially larger totals by midweek as another couple of fronts follow this first system.
The Rockies look like they will be doing pretty well too…we should have new storm action moving out of the Pacific NW on Monday/Tuesday that pushes over Idaho/Montana/Wyoming resorts through the middle of the week. There will also be some lower latitude energy that moves up out of New Mexico and drags new snowfall across Colorado. Looks like Western Wyoming will get a shot of that guy as well so look for heavier snowfalls around Jackson Hole and the northern Utah resorts as these storms pass.

Further out the storm track is going to stay nice and active through the week so I expect basically back-to-back storms sliding over the country, with the next one starting to move over the west coast by midweek and yet another as we head into next weekend.