Below: First run Saturday morning across the sublime alpine slopes of Marmot Basin. A fully refreshed Marmot has received around 6cm over the past 2 days. 

Saturday: Saturday morning snow reports had 10cm new at Castle Mountain and 7cm at Sunshine Village. Look for isolated flurries to continue along the Divide, mainly Sunshine Village during the morning as bits of moisture embedded in the westerly flow move through. Trace accumulations up to 3cm are likely before clearing out in the afternoon. For the rest of the Alberta resorts on Saturday, mainly a sun and cloud mix with a stray morning snow flurry. Moderate west winds continue across the ridgetops and exposed passes, except in the strong category at Castle Mountain. Continued mild, with alpine highs reaching -2C at Castle, Powderkeg, and Nakiska, with -2C to -4C at the SkiBig3 resorts and Marmot Basin. 

Sunday: A zonal flow of mild Pacific moisture will continue to sputter out into light flurries on Sunday as moisture gets wrung out along the BC side of the Divide. Sunday looks to be mainly cloudy with just a few isolated flurries along the Continental Divide. Trace accumulations slightly possible at Sunshine. Temps will stay slightly above seasonal norms under this zonal flow on Sunday. Moderate W/SW winds across the alpine areas. 

Monday: A deepening trough of low-pressure will help transport a Pacific shortwave through mainly the northern half of the region on Sunday night bringing very slight chances of a trace to 3cm for the resorts Banff north to Jasper. Cloudy skies prevail for Monday with periodic sunny spells possible.  Expect gusty west winds to continue along with mild alpine temps. 

Tuesday: Mainly cloudy across the Alberta Rockies with some isolated flurries developing during the afternoon hours, mainly for the resorts north of Banff. Continued above average temps with freeze levels up to 1600m on Tuesday. Light to moderate S/SW winds. 

Wednesday: Tuesday night a deepening Pacific trough is progged to move into northeastern BC bringing periods of snow overnight as it moves southeastward through the Rockies. Off and on periods of snow look possible through the day on Wednesday and into Wednesday night. While better storm tracking details are still needed, this system has decent potential for widespread moderate accumulations of 10 to 20cm through Wednesday night. Mountain temps also look to lose a few degrees back into the seasonal range. Variable SW winds.    

Below: The latest GEM (CDN) model animation for snowfall from 2PM local time Tuesday 2/7 thru 2PM local time Thursday 2/9 shows decent possibilities of significant snowfall finally falling east of the Divide.   

For the period Thursday 2/9 through Monday 2/13, a building ridge of high-pressure is portrayed by the majority of the weather models unfortunately bringing a dry forecast to the Alberta Rockies. Temps look to stay right around seasonal averages through the extended period. No arctic air is expected in the long term.        

Below: The Euro model for 10-Day snowfall through Tuesday 2/14. The Alberta Rockies snowfall on this map mainly reflects the anticipated snowfall from Sunday night 2/5 through Thursday morning 2/9 before high-pressure builds into the Rockies Thursday through Tuesday 2/14.  

 

Thanks for tuning in. Next update, Monday 2/6. 

Powder Out, 

Bob