After four consecutive mornings reporting fresh snow, Thursday kicks off a brief dry spell through Sunday.

But first, let's close the books on the epic March 24-27 storm cycle.

Here is the final "keep me honest" report.

If you've been reading my New Mexico Daily Snow for the last five seasons, you know I do not often forecast 24-36" for one storm cycle. It is impressive that Taos Ski Valley blew that number out of the water.

Ski Santa Fe went ballistic on Monday with the classic setup of a closed low over Kansas and a cold, moist northwest flow, leading to the overperformance award of 16" over my forecast.

A few more stoke pics came to close the books on this epic cycle.

Several Taos reports I received included the same "it was almost too deep" phrase. The key word being "almost."

"In the House of Pow" off West Basin Ridge at Taos.

Pow day of the year Monday at Ski Santa Fe? Strong arguments could be made in its favor.

That's a wrap on the March 24-27 storm cycle. One that will not soon be forgotten. 

We now enter a dry and warming period with gusty winds through Sunday. High temperatures will hover around freezing in the high country and we could see some gusts of 30-50 mph on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Late Sunday, March 31st into Monday, April 1st, a storm will be approaching from the southwest.

There is a lot of model disagreement with the upcoming storm.

The latest individual model runs (lower probability) of the GFS and European are more bullish (6-12" by Wednesday) than the Canadian and German ICON (1-6").

The global compilation (higher probability) lands somewhere in the middle with 2-8" of snow by Wednesday in the northern mountains.

Pencil in Monday and Tuesday for soft turns and possible low to mid-end powder.

Looking further out, there are mixed signals of additional snow in the April 7-10 timeframe.

It would be fantastic if we could score enough snow in the first 10 days of April to keep conditions soft and fresh to close out the lift-accessed portion of the season.

I will catch my breath following this insane storm cycle and won't post on Friday. I will post again on Saturday with the latest on the incoming April 1-2 storm.

Thanks for reading the New Mexico Daily Snow.

¡Viva la nieve!

Julien Ross
[email protected]

NEW: Snow Ratio Forecast

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

New Mexico Geography Key

Northern Mountains
→ Red River, Taos Ski Valley (north side of northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Angel Fire (northeast side of northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Sipapu (middle of the northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Ski Santa Fe (south side of the northern mountains - Sangre de Cristos)
→ Pajarito (southwest side of the northern mountains - Jemez)

Central Mountains
→ Sandia Peak (Sandias)
→ Mt. Taylor backcountry (San Mateos)

Southern Mountains
→ Ski Apache (Sacramentos)
→ Ski Cloudcroft (Sacramentos)