Jan 10, 2025
GFS 24 hr Snowfall thru Model Range
This model run shows snowfall over a 24-hour period.
GFS All Snow thru Model Range
This model run shows 24-hour snowfall for each system.
Euro and GFS Total Snow thru Jan 21 (click/animate)
This model shows total accumulation from each system throughout the period selected.
GFS 500 mb Flow and All Snow Let It Go thru Model Range
This map shows each system thru model range of the GFS 500 mb, about halfway up in the atmosphere, and 24-hour snow totals for the northern hemisphere (click/animate).
Upcoming Storm Friday thru Sunday
Region Totals thru Jan 11th from the National Weather Service
We have the next system coming thru, storm 26 and 27 on the Long-Range, that will begin early tomorrow morning for the Pacific Northwest then hit Utah and Colorado Friday night and Saturday.
PNW
In the North, it’ll be all snow above 4500 ft with snow totals in the 6-10 range for Crystal and Snoqualmie on the high side 14. Mt Baker and Stevens 3-6. In the southern Cascades, expect rain to start off with snow levels super high and dropping to valley floor by tomorrow night. Expect 3-6 after the icing event, don’t forget your squeegees if you brave that manana. Friday night another 3-6. Saturday should be good but a tad windy. High side 14″ if the snow begins early. Hoodoo could be a surprise.
Utah
Beautiful day tomorrow before the snow hits around 10 pm tomorrow night. Expect 4-8 for Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude with 2-4 likely for Park City, Deer Creek and Snowbasin. Check road conditions as it has been touch-and-go lately. Snow and cold Saturday with light wind–should be killer. Another 4-8 or 5-10 during the day for the Cottonwoods.
Colorado
Another sunny and cold day tomorrow. The snow moves in late tomorrow night. Expect 3-5 for Vail, Beaver Creek and Steamboat with 1-3 for resorts along the divide and central ranges. The southern mountains get in on the action on Saturday, expect 2-4 for Powderhorn Telluride, Silverton, Purgatory and hopefully Wolf Creek.
Up in the central, northern, and divide regions this should be a good storm. Most mountains will be in the 4-8 range with the high side between 10-12, most likely Steamboat, Vail, or Winter Park.
Pattern Discussion (from yesterday)
This is a bird’s eye view of the cycling pattern as recorded by snowfall. We are in cycle 3 of this year’s pattern and we are coming up on one of the holes in the pattern. When you look at the upper third of the chart, those numbers are back in October and September so there isn’t much precipitation data because the jet stream had not dropped at that point. What we do at this point of the pattern is project each cycle based on the storms that were present on the 500 mb and surface charts, then project where they will be in future cycles.
The red box inside the blue box gave us a clue in the second cycle that there might be storms that will “fill in the hole” in the next cycle, and that is exactly what we did. Three to four years ago we would have missed these storms.
It is still a gamble, because these storms were weak last cycle and appear to be weak to moderate on the GFS presently, but this extends the Active Part of the Pattern, even though we are in that Northwest Flow pattern now. What will happen next cycle? That is what we are working on now.
Back tracking a little bit, looking at the second third the storms have also filled in a little more–the MJO helped a little but was basically neutral most of the time. This gives us valuable data to improve our storm forecasting in the upcoming cycle. This is why we don’t go out too far on the Predictions chart, because we don’t want to miss something–note, we can project, though, based on the data at the time all the way out to summer. 
Free Snow Concierge–Remember, the Long-Range Forecast Predictions can be projected out for the rest of the season. We don’t release them because we like to “fine tune” the dates of storms; especially because we dial in the forecast by just 1 day’s tolerance. You can email me at Mike@FutureSnow.co anytime to take advantage of this free service. We can tell you when and where to go and give you a personalized forecast for your trip.
Snow Totals over the last 10 Days
Upcoming Storms
Scattered snow showers today in Colorado as the system moves out. There is a clipper system moving thru on Wednesday night and Thursday that will add to the totals, that is one of the systems we talked about above.
Friday thru Sunday
Then a bigger system hits the Pacific Northwest Friday dropping decent numbers in the northern Cascades with minor amounts in the southern ranges. That system will move southeast hitting Utah on time on the 11th, and Colorado the 11/12th. This storm closes out the 12/10 predictions with good totals for all mountains in Utah and Colorado in the 4-8 range with the high side of 8-16.
New to FutureSnow?
If you are new to FutureSnow check out this page using the link in purple. It will help to explain some of the terminology you will be reading on our blog, along with our methodology using the Cycling Weather Pattern. Thanks for joining our Team!
Thank you for reading the blog and as always if you have any questions, please email me at Mike@FutureSnow.co.
