The hits keep coming as weak storm after weak storm have over-produced in the Green Mountains of Vermont and some in Northern New Hampshire with many resorts reporting more than two feet of snow in the last 5 days. Jay Peak was sitting at more than 2 feet in the last 7 days as of yesterday with another 8" overnight. Nothing short of spectacular conditions out there on this Friday morning after 10 days of pure bliss:

It's still crushing out there on Friday morning with snow still falling up and down the Greens with snow squalls expected to continue throughout the day as an Arctic front passes across the region by tonight. Additional accumulations in the mountains will range from ~1-3" up and down the Greens and northern Whites, with probably another 6-8" at Jay, because it's Jay. 

Saturday looks mostly cloudy across central and Northern New England in the mountains as strong northwesterly winds generate some widespread mountain-induced clouds that'll break-up as you head closer to the foothills and down to the coast. Winds should increase throughout the day to 20+ mph as strong high pressure tries to move in and runs into low pressure over the Canadian Maritimes, driving wind chill temperatures down to near (and below) 0F. Sunday looks like more of the same with perhaps more sun than clouds. 

Conditions across New England are the best we've seen this winter (if we don't include that central New England dump in December) and they should be awesome this weekend with tons of powder, packed powder, some machine groom/corduroy for the swishers, and lots of open terrain (nearing 100% at many locations). Skiing and riding this weekend will bring you some great conditions, but you'll likely have to deal with the chill/wind, an occasional or likely wind hold, and some lift lines. Pack your boot warmers.

Forecast animation for next week of pressure and precipitation from http://www.pivotalweather.com.

The week ahead has four key players across the U.S. that will influence the forecast, only one of which will influence our weather in New England (hint: other places get the snow this time).

1. A storm that develops over the central Plains will bee line for the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday into Wednesday. This storm should remain south of New England, but will bring light snow as far north as Pennsylvania and western New York. 
2. A big high-impact storm crashing into the West Coast on Wednesday that will bring the Sierra lots of snow, but bring us nothing -- it is 3,000 miles away after all.
3. A storm that develops over the southeast U.S. that will zip over to the coast bringing snow to the southern Appalachians. 
4. High pressure that migrates from central Canada to Ontario and Quebec parking itself just north of New England throughout the week keeping us mostly dry, but also with a persistent bite of northerly or northeasterly flow. Bernie will have his mittens on.

A peek at the ensembles (ECMWF, above) really tells the same story, high pressure will largely be in control over New England with very few possibilities of getting into some snow next week (maybe something light on Tuesday?). Temperatures during this period will be "near normal", which for this time of year is 0-10s at night and 10-20s during the day. It will feel colder because it's been relatively warm as of late. Conditions on the slopes should stabilize to pack powder and resorts could blow snow if they wanted or needed to increase any thin coverage.

The pattern turns favorable for more snow sometime during week 2 in early February. We have to wait for all the energy/storms forecasted to come into the West Coast to back off, which will take some time and carry some uncertainty. Once a ridge builds back over the eastern North Pacific and western North America, we should get a trough over the eastern two-thirds of the country that would create a more favorable storm track for New England snows.

I'll be back over the weekend with an update on any recent snows, snow conditions, and any big changes to the forecast. My next full forecast will be on Monday morning. 

-Dr. Jay | New England Daily Snow