Utah and Colorado Time

Summary

The storm has moved out of California leaving fresh tracks at Homewood 19, Sugar Bowl 14, Mt Rose 18 and Palisades 12. Utah has already picked up 8 at Park City and Alta, while the southern mountains had stronger totals.  Brian Head picked up 15 yesterday and it appears to have picked up at least another 4 from their webcam.

That storm will continue today for Utah and Colorado and will exit tonight.  Meanwhile, another small system slides down the British Columbia coast today and impacts the PNW early tomorrow.  That small wave takes a beeline to Colorado and arrives Friday for a small refresh.

Stoke

        
      

Forecast

Utah

Snow today with cold temps, in the single digits, moderate winds from 10-15 mph.  Expect another 2-5 today for the Cottonwood mountains Alta and Snowbird, while the southern Wasatch will be in the 3-6 range.  There is a slight chance that the clipper system coming by Thursday night might clip the Cottonwood resorts, so another 1-2 refresh is possible.

Colorado

Resorts along I-70

Cold to start with temps in the single digits warming to the upper 20’s with moderate winds from 10-15 mph. Expect 2-4 during the day today with another 1-3 tonight.  Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper, Keystone, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin

Central Mountains 

Similar conditions as above, with higher snow totals for the day, 4-6 and another 1-3 tonight.  Crested Butte, Aspen/Highlands/Snowmass, Monarch

Southern Mountains

Cold start with temps rising to the middle 20’s.  Heavy stow today with strong winds with 30 mph gusts.  I am expecting 5-10 today with another 3-5 tonight for Telluride, Wolf Mountain and Silverton. 

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Telluride, Silverton, Wolf Creek, Purgatory

Next Storm is Friday with a small clipper system swinging by.  I am not expecting much, in terms of precipitation, but another 1-3 is possible.

Next Pattern Storm

The next pattern storm should hit the coast early on the 2nd.  The last time through this system was strong with the PNW, Tahoe, Utah and Colorado all with double digit totals.  That was the second cycle–super strong.  This cycle is more like cycle 1–all mountains received snow, however the totals were more on the mild side, generally single digits with a couple spots receiving 10+.  

The models do not have agreement on this next system, so we will keep monitoring and keep you posted.  This is part of the Spring Break forecast we released last week.  Below is the forecast for March.

Spring Break Forecast for March

Spring break is right around the corner, so I thought I would break down, week by week, what will happen and more importantly, where the snow will be for the month of March.

March 1-5

March kicks off with a bang. In cycles 1 and 2 Utah had snow, so March 1-3 for Alta, Snowbird and the other cottonwood resorts.
Colorado had light snow, cycle 1 on the same days with heavy snow on day 27 (Mar 4).  I expect the same in cycle 3, with the caveat, in cycle 2 it dumped, so a repeat like that would be a welcome surprise.  

March 6-12

There is a split, during this week, in terms of pattern storms from the last 2 cycles. The one constant is Colorado.  Colorado resorts received snow on days 33-35, which translates to March 9-11.  Expect a good system for Vail, Steamboat, Aspen, Breckenridge and Crested Butte.

If the strength of the Pattern is more like cycle 2, Then Utah resorts Park City, Alta and Snowbird will have good snow.  We will have to monitor the models to confirm those chances.  Jackson Hole, Big Sky, both had good storms those days (Mar 10-12) in cycle 2, with JH having triple digit totals for 3 straight days,  

March 13-20

We are split again during these dates.  The only consensus is Colorado on days 42-43 (Mar 19-20).  This was a small storm in both cycles with Colorado resorts picking up between 6-12, on average, in both cycles.

If the strength of the Pattern mirrors cycle 1, then Alta, Snowbird and Park City all received snow on day 41, which is March 18th.