Below: It's World Cup Week at Lake Louise and everything's a go (but the weather forecast) for the  Men's DH on Friday 11/25, with back-to-back Super G’s on Saturday and Sunday. Women’s World Cup speed races will be held the following weekend 12/2 – 12/4. These will unfortunately be the last World Cup races at Lake Louise for the near future as they did not renew for next year. It’s been a great run, thanks Lake Louise! 

The Forecast: 

Wednesday: Mainly cloudy with sunny breaks. Light West winds on the ridgetops to 10 kph. Low -10C with highs -6C at 2200m. 

Thursday: Mainly cloudy with sunny breaks. Light SW winds on the ridgetops to 15 kph. Warmer. Low -8C with highs -3C at 2200m. 

Friday: By dawn on Friday a cold front will push into the Rockies from the NW bringing periods of light snowfall expected to last off and on through the day on Friday, mainly north of Banff. This possibly could throw some challenges into the World Cup DH race at Lake Louise. 4 - 8cm accumulations (more possibly on west-facing slopes) are likely at Sunshine, Louise, and Marmot by day's end. 2200m high temps of -2C. Gusty SW winds 15kph with gusts to 30kph along the ridges.
 
Saturday: Mainly cloudy with isolated afternoon snow flurries. Trace accumulations possible. High -2C at 2200m. SW winds 10-20kph. 

Sunday: Here we go again as a trending stronger storm system moves down the Divide from NE BC/North Alberta Saturday night and into Sunday. Currently, weather models have upped Saturday night through Sunday’s storm totals in the neighborhood of 10 – 15cm for those resorts along the Divide (Castle, Sunshine, Louise and Marmot). Temps at 2200m, lows of around -6C with an afternoon high of -2C. Light SW winds to 15kph.

Below: The European Model for snowfall over BC and Alberta for the period Friday 11/25 through MOnday 11/28. Two main waves of moisture, one of Friday and another on Sunday should be eveident in the center of the screen along the BC / Alberta border, or along the Continental Divide. 

Sunday night look for the storm system to continue to move south through the spine of the Rockies toward the US border. This will bring additional moderate snow amounts of 5 – 10cm to Nakiska and 10-15cm additional at Castle Mountain (closed Monday unfortunately).  

An arctic high pressure system looks likely to move in from the north on Monday night into Tuesday which will likely dry things out. Well below average temperatures with highs at 2200m of around -16C for Monday and Tuesday. An overriding shortwave around Wednesday 11/30 (see below) could bring in light accumulations and a slight warm-up before a reinforcing shot of arctic air arrives to end the work week. The storm track through the following weekend 12/3 & 4 is currently favored to be positioned to the south over the American Rockies but at 10 days out, there’s still a lot that can change. 

Thanks for tuning in, next update will be on Friday 11/25.  

Powder Out, 

Bob

 
PS - I took this survey about "Sliding With Respect" and it would be wonderful if you could contribute your thoughts as well. The survey is being run by a group at Fort Lewis State College in Durango, Colorado. Take the survey.

Alberta Rockies Ski Resorts & Areas / North & South “Regions” are solely for Geographic References in my forecasts…

OPENING DAYS

 North Region:  ( * denotes SkiBig3 resorts )

*Banff/Sunshine Village  OPEN daily

*Lake Louise Ski Resort  OPEN daily  

*Mt Norquay  OPEN daily  

Marmot Basin        OPEN daily

 South Region:

Castle Mountain   Early Opening Nov 26^th and 27^th  

Fortress / KPOW Cat Skiing  TBA

Nakiska  OPEN WEEKENDS 

Pass Powderkeg  OPEN WEEKENDS  

 

Estimated Snow Reports

If ski resort locations are closed or do not provide OpenSnow with an official snow report, we use our proprietary weather data to provide an estimated snow report for the past 24 hours. Check for the "Estimated" badge on the OpenSnow app and website.

This also applies to any backcountry location or "custom location", meaning that you can get an idea of recent snow conditions and an estimated snowfall history for your favorite backcountry spots.

This data is available exclusively to All-Access subscribers. Snow reports that are provided to OpenSnow from the ski resorts will always be free.