Northwest Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Northwest Daily Snow

By Larry Schick, Forecaster Posted 5 years ago November 15, 2018

Is there any hope for Thanksgiving holiday skiing ?

Summary

After a weak weather system moves through on Thursday and Friday, high pressure will build in for several days. The high pressure will divert the storm track north and east, and produce mainly dry weather with little or no snowfall in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest in the days before Thanksgiving.

Short Term Forecast

Significant snowfall before Thanksgiving is very unlikely. Really, it’s not going to happen. The total snowfall for Thursday and Friday will be fairly light in the 1-5” range with the snow levels 4,500-6,000ft. There might be more snowfall at Whistler, but not enough for a lot of runs to open for Thanksgiving. They do have snowmaking and natural snow, but limited. Expect, maybe, a few lifts spinning and a few runs open to the Thanksgiving weekend.

High pressure will build in for the weekend and into next week, producing a pattern of little or no snow. See above 500 millibar airflow (18,000ft) directing storms away from us and into the Rockies. 

Extended Forecast

The models have been hinting at a more active weather pattern toward Thanksgiving and the subsequent weekend. I’ve been hanging onto a thread of hope all month. The models have been hinting at “something” most of November, then always backing away as we get closer to the target “promised snowfall”. Usually leaving us with little or no snow. I was holding out hope for Thanksgiving, but recent model runs have weakened the forecasted storminess, so my confidence is low for significant snow for the holiday. There will be some snow, but not as much as we need.

Larry Schick - meteorologist

OpenSnow NW

About Our Forecaster

Larry Schick

Forecaster

Larry cherry picks the best powder days to ski. He has skied more than 60 ski areas in the Western US and British Columbia – including Cat and Heliskiing. His ride continues. The path is lined with fresh snow and perfect waves.

Free OpenSnow App