Thursday, March 28 – Friday, March 29 

Webcams at 0700 Thursday showed moderate snow falling at Sunshine, Lake Louise, and Marmot Basin. Marmot reported 8 cm fresh overnight with 2 cm at Lake Louise, Norquay, and Sunshine.  

A Pacific low-pressure trough off the Washington coast has ejected a shortwave disturbance and cold front inland across BC on Thursday bringing cooler temps, along with increasing snowfall moving north to south across the AB Rockies through the day. 

This system will bring periods of light snowfall along with some intense convective snow squalls possible, especially along the Divide at BSV, Lake Louise, and Nakiska. Likely accumulations from Thursday through Friday morning fall in the 8 – 15 cm range at Nakiska, Norquay, BSV, Louise, and Marmot Basin. Trace amounts to 5 cm are possible at Castle. 

Freeze levels remain around 1400m, so alpine temps should stay below freezing on both days. Alpine high temps at 2000m will range from -4C to -6C on both days. Light SW winds Thursday, light and variable E/NE winds develop Thursday night through Friday.

A second trough arrives out of the NW midday on Friday, once again spreading snowfall across the region. Periods of snow develop by Friday afternoon and continue into the overnight hours adding another 8 – 15 cm at the SkiBig3 resorts, with 5 – 10 cm at Castle and Nakiska by Saturday morning. Marmot, riding north of the storm track this time may only see a slight chance of trace accumulations.  

Saturday, March 30 – Sunday, March 31 

After some residual morning flurries on Saturday morning, mainly to the south at Castle Mountain, an upper-level ridge is favored to infiltrate the Rockies drying the skies for a rather pleasant weekend. Skies across the Rockies will be a mix of sun and clouds by midday Saturday. Sunday looks to see a similar dry mix.    

Alpine high temps at 2000m will range from 0C at Castle to around -3C at the SkiBig3 resorts on Saturday, with a few degrees warmer readings on Sunday. Daily freeze levels this weekend will be in the 1600 – 1900m range.

Light W/SW winds both days under the stable ridge of high-pressure. 

The upper ridge of high-pressure looks to extend across the Rockies Monday through Wednesday bringing daily freeze/thaw cycles along with some prime spring skiing conditions under mostly sunny skies. 

A change appears on the far horizon as ensembles are coming to better agreement on a cold trough of Alaskan low-pressure dropping into Western Canada later next Wednesday and staying over the Rockies through Friday. Stay tuned…  

Thanks for reading. The next update will be on Saturday morning. 

Until then,

Powder Out,  

Bob 

You can now get a good idea of the upcoming snow quality for the next storm via our new "Snow Ratio" forecast for any location in OpenSnow.

When we talk about snow quality, such as “light and fluffy” or “heavy and wet”, we are talking about the snow-to-liquid ratio. The higher the snow-to-liquid ratio, the lighter the snow quality, and vice-versa.

1. Go to any location screen and tap the "Snow Summary" tab.
2. Scroll down to the 5-day hourly or 10-day forecast section.
3. View the 5-day hourly or daily "Snow Ratio" forecast for the next 10 days.

10:1 will be fun but will feel a little heavy. 15:1 will offer some faceshots and feel pretty light. 20:1 will be incredibly light, almost like skiing through nothing but air.

This new feature is currently available with the latest version of the OpenSnow iOS app installed (App Store > OpenSnow > Update) or on the OpenSnow website (OpenSnow.com). It will be available in the OpenSnow Android app soon.

View → Snow Ratio Forecast