It may start more as cement on the mountain and rain at your house but then we go to powder Saturday and again Sunday night. We have a large wave riding the jet stream that will push into the West Coast today bringing snow from Mt. Baker down to Mammoth. Those storms will progress East through the Rockies spreading the snow there as well. By Monday there will be several feet of fresh snow on the mountains.

Snow levels will start out fairly high today around 4500 ft. up in Washington and 8000 ft. down in Tahoe. As the heaviest precip pushes in overnight the snow levels will fall to 2500 ft up in Washington and down to lake level for Tahoe by Saturday morning. Above 4000 ft. in Washington we should see 1-2 feet at places like Mt. Baker by Saturday afternoon with lesser amounts below that depending on how fast the snow levels fall. For Tahoe we should see 2-3 feet above 8000 ft. with 1-2 above 7000 ft. and maybe a foot at lake level once the rain changes to snow.

As the moisture pushes East through the Rockies on Saturday we should see a foot or more at most locations from Idaho down to the Northern 2/3rds of Colorado. There is a break along the West Coast for Sunday before another storm moves in Sunday night into Monday, and then East into the Rockies through Tuesday.  This storm looks like it could drop another foot of snow on the all the mountains from the Cascades & Sierras across through the Rockies by Tuesday. 

Here is the total precip map through Tuesday showing 2-4 inches of liquid in bright yellow and 4-6 inches in light orange.  That light orange near the crest of Tahoe is what makes it possible that above 8000 ft. along the crest some places could hit 4 feet.

Here is the total snowfall map from the GFS through Tuesday which maxes out at 2+ feet in the peach color and 1-2 feet in the purple.

Since we want to mention the potential powder for anywhere in the country on the Friday Powder Alerts, we can’t forget that the poconos (don’t laugh) could pick up 6-12 inches on Saturday.

By Wednesday the storm track will have shifted back North into the Pacific NW as a ridge builds off the CA coast. The snow will continue through the end of next week with 3-4 more feet possible for the Cascades and 1-2 feet for the Northern Rockies, mainly Idaho with several inches possible as far South as Jackson.BA