Update
Parks Canada has now closed all access to the backcountry at Banff, Kootenay, and Yoho National Parks. Alberta Parks has closed visitor services and facilities across the Rockies and has highly recommended backcountry users to stay at home. This includes all Banff/Jasper area ski resorts that might have been open previously for skinning.
Suffice to say, it is in everyone’s best interest to heed their advice and stay local, go for a hike or cycle, and literally ride this thing out. This pandemic is truly bigger than our individual cravings for powder and adventure. Until things change and the mountains open back up, this will be our last forecast for the foreseeable future.
For the weekend, a low-pressure system over northern BC will track to the southeast bringing snow showers to mountain areas from Banff north to Jasper with the Saturday night into Sunday time period being the most active. Cumulative snow totals of 10-20 cm are quite possible along with moderate south/southwest winds across the alpine.
Saturday will generally be a cloudy day for most, except for the areas south of Banff where sunny spells will be dribbled in with the clouds. Daytime highs at 2100m across the Rockies will range from -6c south to -8c north. Freeze levels look to stay around 1500m Saturday, rising to 1800m Sunday. Saturday night the aforementioned low-pressure system looks to direct light snow first to the mountains around Jasper, then slowly moves south during the overnight. About 5-10 cm are possible by Sunday morning for the mountains north of Banff. Light snow continues Sunday to the north with an additional 10-15 cm likely for elevations 2100m and above. To the south, a mix of sun and clouds mainly. Moderate S/SW winds up to 50 km will be felt across ridges and alpine areas. Daytime Highs Sunday will stay right around -5c at 2100m. Light snow looks to continue Sunday night into Monday with another 10-15cm possible from Banff and north, with 5-10cm south of Banff.
Thanks for reading and hopefully we’ll be back sooner than later.
Be well, stay safe and respect others.
Powder Out -
Bob
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