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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 9 years ago October 9, 2014

FORECAST: Active weather returns to the west

snow forecast
Forecast from the Canadian weather model. Source: Weatherbell.com

Two storms will bring snow to the Rocky Mountains between Thursday and Sunday, with Colorado likely seeing the most total snowfall.

The first storm is actually the remnants of Hurricane Simon. As it pushes LOTS of moisture over Colorado on Thursday and Friday, the southern and eastern mountains may see upwards of 10 inches of snow at the highest elevations (over 12,000ft).

Once this first storm moves away, the second storm will work its way south from Canada and bring snow to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming on Saturday and Saturday night, then this snow will hit Utah and Colorado on Sunday. Storm snowfall totals will be around 6 inches, though there will be a lot of variation by elevation (say that 10 times fast!).

Looking ahead to next week, a large "parent" storm will anchor itself in the Gulf of Alaska and will throw smaller "mini-me" storms into Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Each of these "mini-me" storms will bring wind, rain, and heavy snow at higher elevations. 

snow forecast
The American GFS model shows the large parent storm (blue/purple colors) in the Gulf of Alaska early next week. Source: Weatherbell.com

Beyond next week's storm, I don't see a consistent forecast for the last 10 days of October. Some models break the big Gulf of Alaska storm into pieces and push them through the western US, while other models keep the parent storm anchored out over the Pacific Ocean. We'll see, and as always, we'll hope for the best!

JOEL GRATZ

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About The Author

Joel Gratz

Founding Meteorologist

Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.

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