Below is the NOHRSC snowfall analysis for the past 24 hours (snowfall from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning):
We can see major gains in southern Washington, Oregon, and the Sierra, which ended up being the winner from this storm (with a few more inches on the way during the day on Thursday). Most resorts in the Tahoe region are reporting 8-15″ of fresh snowfall.
Snowfall also extended into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Soldier Mountain won Idaho with 12″ overnight (Sun Valley picked up 5), and in the Tetons, Targhee picked up 12″ with 10″ at Jackson.
Precipitation will continue across the west during the day on Thursday, with the heaviest snowfall in central Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Below is projected snowfall from the HRRR:
Looking ahead, a secondary push of moisture on Friday will bring major snowfall to the Tetons. Following a good dump on Wednesday and Thursday, additional snowfall on Friday will make for excellent chasing at Targhee/Jackson. Here’s 12 hour snowfall from Thursday night through the end of the ski day on Friday:
The next storm gets underway on Saturday morning and sets up a series of storms that will take very similar storm tracks to one another all week, slamming the Sierra and then driving east-northeast into Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.
The Tetons are going to be firing all next week, the conditions there should be pretty good with cold temps and lots of moisture; not a single huge push of snow, but small consistent dumps every single day next week. California stays warm, so the snow is going to be a little on the heavier side.
Model agreement remains very poor, so forecasting totals is pointless at the moment. Below is the side-by-side GFS (left) and ECMWF (right) 5 day forecast from Saturday morning to Thursday morning. The GFS is a little more bullish in the Sierra (especially the northern Sierra in the Lake Tahoe region), and the ECMWF is significantly more optimistic about pretty much everywhere inland: Utah, Colorado, Wyoming. If the ECMWF forecast pans out, it should be a pretty great week of skiing across the west:
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