A storm is currently approaching the West Coast as you can see below on the satellite. The low will come onshore in Oregon on Saturday bringing snow to the Cascades & Sierra. Then as it progresses East it will bring snow to the Rockies Sunday and Monday. The Northeast will also see a couple of snowfall events although most of the resorts have closed or are closing this weekend.
Moisture is already streaming into the Pacific NW and you can see the moisture tap all the way down towards Hawaii. The snow levels will rise tonight above 3500 ft. in Washington. Down in the Sierra the snow levels are up as high as 9000 ft. this evening near Tahoe but the temperatures are starting to come down. You can see below the temperatures were up to 38 degrees at the summit of Alpine Meadows this afternoon but have begun to come down.
As the cold front approaches on Saturday the snow levels will continue to fall. We will see a little rain in the lower elevations. As the cold front moves through with the heaviest precip in the afternoon the snow levels will drop back down below 3000 ft. in Washington and below 6000 ft. in the Sierra. Snow showers will continue into Sunday morning as the storm moves East into the Rockies.
Northern Idaho will get heavy snowfall, but the rest of the Rockies from Jackson down to Snowbird and South to Telluride & Taos will see lighter snowfall. The low will spin up over Southern Colorado into Monday and there will be some higher amounts of snowfall East of the divide South of Denver missing most of the resorts.
The Northeast will also get in on the action with a band of snow working through New York and Souther New England on Saturday. Then another system brings snow through New England Sunday night. All together the snow will fly in most ski resort locations in the country over the next 3 days. Here is the snowfall forecast through Monday.
There are a lot of locations so I am going to broad brush the snowfall forecasts. We could see 1-2 feet in the Cascades of Washington and Oregon through Monday. Down into the Sierra we could see 12-18 inches with the most up along the crest. East into Idaho up to a foot is possible and 5-9 inches over into Wyoming near Jackson.
3-6 inches are possible in the mountains of Utah and East into most areas of Colorado. Southern Colorado & Northern New Mexico should do a little better with 5-9 inches near Telluride & Taos, and then up to 18 inches East of the divide. In the Northeast 2-4 inches are possible between the Saturday and Sunday night systems for the moutains, with a few inches more possible in Central NY and Western Maine.
There is another trough that will move into the West Coast next Wednesday bringing colder air and the chance for several inches of snow from Mt. Baker down to Mammoth. BA
