Powder through Christmas and Beyond
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist
December 17, 2018
Summary
The northwest will continue to receive the most snow this week, though the weather pattern will begin to change as we move closer to Christmas with more snow heading to the northeast and the western United States.
Spring Break in the Canadian Rockies
This spring, grab your skis or snowboard and hit the slopes! Or strap on a pair of snowshoes or cross-country skis and step into our real-life snow globe. Lake Louise is the epitome of winter in the heart of Banff National Park and the majestic Canadian Rockies: https://opsw.co/Fairmont12318
Short Term Forecast
This is what we want to see!
We have been talking about significant snow heading to the northwest, and the numbers do not lie! Whistler has reported eight days in a row of new snow with over 80 inches of accumulation and more on the way. The snow stake cam below shows the snow that fell on the night on Wednesday, December 12th. How’s that for a quick 20 inches of powder?!
Forecast for Monday to Friday
The forecast for the next five days, from Monday through Friday, shows that the northwest (British Columbia, Washington, Oregon) will continue to be favored with 1-4 FEET of additional accumulation. Also, early in the week, parts of Idaho and Montana could receive 5-20 inches while Tahoe sneaks in with 5-10 inches by Monday morning.
Forecast for the weekend
The weather pattern will adjust somewhat over the weekend. The northwest will see a break in the action while one or two storms impact the western United States (though details are uncertain about this, so I made a dashed purple circle below showing the uncertainty).
In the northeast, a warm storm will bring rain to all areas from Friday into Saturday, but then cold air on the backside of the storm should bring snowflakes from Saturday afternoon through Sunday or Monday.
Extended Forecast
The odds are high that snow will come to the western United States and western Canada during the week of Christmas and likely beyond into New Years.
While the map below does not offer high confidence (yet) of cooler temperatures and likely snow during this time, the trend is for more active weather during Christmas week, which would be great timing as this is one of the busiest times of the year for resorts.
