Summary

After an epic start to the 2017/18 season, the snowpack has been brutalized with four days of near record high temps and steady rainfall. Areas west of the Divide fared the worst. Lookout Pass had a record early season snowpack going until Tuesday when the temps started rising and the snow changed to rain. Almost 3.5 inches of rain fell since then. They will re-open over the weekend but the lower mountain will have a few more obstacles showing. The good news – if there is any – is that the upper elevations (generally 5500’ and above) had so much snowpack that the pack absorbed most of the rain. East of the Divide escaped most of the steady rainfall (most resorts received rain showers up to 9000’) but not the near record temps. It was 68 degrees on Thanksgiving at Great Falls, 62 in Bozeman and 71 in Billings! Mountain temps at 8000’ were steady in the mid-40’s. Bridger Bowl and Maverick were both scheduled to open today (11/24) but cancelled opening due to insufficient snowpack on the lower slopes. The future looks slightly brighter with a weak cold-front that will bring a few inches by Monday night before temps spiral downward on Wednesday with the arrival of another fast moving low pressure system shooting down from BC. We never talk about snow-making in this blog but we will for this report as it is now important to coat those lower mountain runouts and high traffic areas.

Short Term Forecast