Windy Friday

It will be windy on Friday ahead of the weekend storm. Gusts over the summit will be in the 55 to 60 MPH range out of the South-Southwest likely shutting down the upper mtn. lifts. Clouds will stream in throughout the day. The amount of moisture that comes through today is limited, so I'm not expecting accumulations overnight, especially while snow levels remain quite high. 

Weekend Snowstorm 

Our storm is on the way and it should be a decent amount considering it's the middle of April. Winds will still be very gusty on Saturday throughout the day over the summit, so I'm not expecting upper mtn. lifts to be spinning. 

Temps will be much cooler in the low to mid 30's at the bases and upper 20's over the summit. As the day goes on temps will continue to fall. Snow levels will likely start as high as 7,500 FT Saturday morning if not even a little higher during weaker precip rates. 

They will crash down to about 4K FT Saturday night and stay in the 4,500 to 5,300 FT range on Sunday. I'm not expecting super light-density snow but when the snow levels crash we should see ratios go up to 13 to 14:1. 

Sunday winds will die down significantly and the upper mtns. should get a chance to open. This might be one of our final weekend snowstorms. While snow is always possible going into late April and May it's just going to get harder and harder to see meaningful accumulations. 

The overall precip forecast has not changed. The GFS has at least 0.50 inches of liquid, while the Euro & WPC has close to 0.80 inches of liquid. My forecast is for 3 - 6 inches of snow at Main Lodge. I'm bumping up the numbers just a tad since I'm confident we'll see at least 3 inches. The 6 is if the snow accumulates faster during the colder time period and the wetter models verify. It's possible the summit could see 8 inches. 

We will have to wait till Monday to tally these numbers up, since snow is expected through Sunday evening. 

Monday & Tuesday Dry & Partly Sunny

We'll see dry and partly sunny weather both days. Monday will be in the low 40's at the bases while Tuesday we could hit 50 degrees. 

The potential for any moisture and cooler weather is less obvious on the models this morning. No surprises there, considering it's Spring and weather patterns in the Spring are hard to nail down more than 3 days out. So we could still see a swing back to cooler temps. 

Right now, I see some moisture coming in the form of afternoon pop-up showers by next Thursday the 18th into Friday the 19th. Snow levels remain well above 10K FT. 

We'll see how it shakes out. Temps may stay in the low 50's throughout most of the week. 

I will be traveling for work on Saturday and Sunday. I will update you with the snowfall totals on Monday morning and a quick outlook for next week. I will be out in the field for the next 2 weeks, so my posts will likely be shorter... and given that it's April I should have less to talk about in general. We'll see what this winter has left for us.. 

Till the next one... Mike out. 

Summer Weather: How To Use OpenSnow

As the snow begins to melt and summer conditions quickly take over, remember that you can use OpenSnow as your go-to weather app during the non-winter months.

Get started by going to...

1. Favorites > Weather
2. Location > Weather
3. Maps > Weather

Switch to using your "Summer" favorites list, check the "Weather" tab on both the Favorites screen and any location screen, and avoid poor air quality & incoming storms with our summer-focused map layers in the OpenSnow app.

You can also view the hourly forecast for the next 10 days for any location on Earth in OpenSnow.

1. Go to the "Maps" tab.
2. Tap anywhere or search for a city.
3. Tap "View Forecast".

View → Summer Forecasts