Recent Snow Totals:

On Wednesday, light snow showers continued across Southern BC on the backside of Tuesday's storm with Kicking Horse picking up another 10 cm. Heavy snow developed across Northwest BC on Wednesday as the next storm arrived, and continued into Thursday with the heaviest snow shifting into Northeast BC.

Moderate to heavy snow also developed across Southwest BC on Thursday-Thursday night, favoring Mt. Washington and Whistler, with light snow showers for western portions of the Interior.

Here are the latest 48-hour snow totals ending Friday AM:

• 45 cm (18") - Powder King
• 26 cm (10") - Hudson Bay Mountain
• 26 cm (10") - Mt. Washington
• 22 cm (9") - Shames Mountain
• 21 cm (8") - Whistler
• 17 cm (7") - Manning Park
• 14 cm (6") - Silver Star
• 10 cm (4") - Kicking Horse
• 10 cm (4") - Cypress Mountain
• 9 cm (4") - Sasquatch Mountain
• 8 cm (3") - Revelstoke
• 8 cm (3") - Sun Peaks
• 5 cm (2") - Big White
• 5 cm (2") - Grouse Mountain
• 5 cm (2") - Mt. Seymour
• 3 cm (1") - Apex
• 1 cm (0.5") - Whitewater
• 1 cm (0.5") - Panorama

Forecast for Friday:

Snow showers will continue across BC during the day on Friday favoring Coastal and Northern areas more so than the Southern Interior and Powder Highway.

Snow shower activity will gradually wind down over the course of the day with most areas experiencing a lull in the evening. Snowfall will then pick back up across Northwest BC (Shames Mtn) late Friday night as another storm approaches.

Additional snow totals on Friday will range from 2-10 cm (1-4") across the Coast Range of Southwest BC with snow levels ranging from 750-900 meters (2.5-3k feet).

Across the Interior, snow shower activity will be spotty, favoring northern areas where Revy, Rogers Pass, and Kicking Horse could pick up another trace to 5 cm (trace-2"). Further south, only isolated flurries with dusting level accumulations can be expected.

Snow shower activity will favor the Northern Rockies and Cariboos in Northern BC with another 2-10 cm (1-4") expected. Northwest BC will see a break on Friday before snow picks up again just before dawn on Saturday.

Forecast for Saturday:

Southern BC will see a break on Saturday with only some isolated flurries and highs in the 0 to -5ºC range. 

Another storm will impact Northern BC and the Shames Mountain area will pick up another 10-20 cm (4-8"). Further inland, snow totals will generally range from 5-15 cm (2-6") across the Skeenas, Northern Rockies, and Cariboos including Powder King. Snow totals at Hudson Bay Mountain will be lighter, ranging from 1-5 cm (0.5-2").

Forecast for Sunday to Monday:

A stronger storm will bring more widespread snow to all regions of BC on Monday and Tuesday. The storm will feature a trough of low pressure moving into Northern BC from the Gulf of Alaska on Sunday, before progressing southward into Southern BC on Monday and exiting south of the U.S. border on Tuesday.

During the day on Sunday, heavy snow will develop across Northern BC with lighter and more intermittent snow showers developing across Southern BC (favoring the Coast Range a bit more than the Interior). Winds aloft will be out of the west/southwest and will become gusty across the higher terrain of Southern BC on Sunday afternoon.

Snow levels across Coast Range of Southwest BC will range from 600-900 meters (2-3k feet), but will be higher on Vancouver Island, ranging from 1,000-1,400 meters (3.5-4.5k feet).

On Sunday night and into Monday morning, the focus of moderate to heavy snow will shift into Southern BC as a cold front moves through from northwest to southeast. Snow levels will also drop to 300-600 meters across Southern BC.

Snow shower activity will also persist across Northern BC on Sunday night behind the cold front.

On Monday, lingering moisture and unstable atmosphere behind the cold front will result in additional moderate to heavy snow showers across Southern BC with winds eventually shifting to northwesterly on Monday afternoon. Winds will be strongest on Monday morning before decreasing in the afternoon and evening.

The focus of this backside snow shower activity will be across all of Southern BC on Monday morning, then primarily across the Interior on Monday afternoon and Monday night.

My early call for snow totals across Southwest BC is 15-30 cm (6-12") for Whistler and the North Shore Mountains, 10-20 cm (4-8") at Manning Park, 2-10 cm (1-4") at Mt. Washington. Monday morning will be the prime time for fresh powder.

Across the Interior, I'll go with a general forecast of 10-25 cm (4-10") across the board. Monday afternoon and especially Tuesday morning will be the prime windows for fresh powder. Stay tuned for a more refined snowfall forecast on my next post on Sunday morning.

Across Northern BC, I'm expecting 15-30 cm (6-12") at Shames Mountain and the Northern Coast Range as well as the Cariboo Range. Powder King and the Northern Rockies will pick up 10-25 cm (4-10") with similar totals also expected in the core of the Skeena Range. Hudson Bay will see lighter totals of 2-8 cm (1-3").

Most of the accumulating snow across Northern BC will happen on Sunday-Sunday night with lighter snow showers on Monday. Snow conditions will be good call weekend with the deepest powder conditions expected on Monday morning.

Nearly all of BC will see a break in the action on Tuesday, then the next storm will reach Northern BC as early as Wednesday (Feb 15) before impacting Southern BC on Thursday (Feb 16). This will likely be a quicker/weaker storm compared to the last one, but I don't have much confidence in the details this far out.

We may see another brief break after the Feb 16th storm, then I'm expecting an active pattern to resume over the weekend of February 18th-19th and continuing into the week of February 20th-26th. This pattern may favor Southern BC a bit more than Northern BC.

Temperatures are also expected to remain below average throughout the extended range, which should result in consistently low snow levels.

Thanks so much for reading! Next update on Sunday (Feb 12).

ALAN SMITH