Western Powder this Week and Next

Summary

Following like snow this week in the east, the weather pattern will shift with cold air and snow favoring the western US and Canada through the end of January. Expect powder from the northwest to California to Colorado and in between, with one storm later this week and weekend, and another system around January 22-24th. Time to go to pow town!

Short Term Forecast

The forecast for the beginning of this week, from Monday, January 15 through Wednesday, January 17, will be rather quiet across the west while the eastern third of the country sees light snowfall.

Notice that snow is just beginning to creep into the forecast along the west coast of British Columbia. This is a harbinger of things to come!

Later this week, from Thursday, January 18 through Sunday, January 21, a significant storm will bring cold air and snow to all areas of the west, from British Columbia in the north to New Mexico in the south. There should be at least one or two fun powder days for most mountain areas with snowfall in the 6-12+ inch range.

The western storm will end around Sunday, January 21st and will head east, bringing snow the upper-Midwest from January 21-22. Then, a new storm will hit the west during the January 22-24th time frame.

Unfortunately, the storm that brought snow to the west from the 18-21st, and the upper-Midwest from the 21-22nd, will bring a day of rain and warm temperatures to the mid-Atlantic and northeast on Monday the 22nd.

The snowpack is strong in the east following a great start to the season, so one day of warmth and rain shouldn’t hurt the base depth too much, especially since we’ll see cooler air and light snow starting again around the 23rd for northern New England.

Extended Forecast

Looking into the the 10-15 day range, out to January 23-28, it appears that the western half of the US and Canada will stay cold, while the east will see close to average or above average temperatures.

It’s likely that this pattern will shift a little bit during the final few days of January, but that is too far away to offer a confident forecast for the days heading into February.

In the meantime, get ready for multiple powder days in the west!

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ