Summary
It's been dumping the last few days, and plenty more will come today. Lingering snow showers continue Tuesday before things briefly quiet down a bit. The next storm arrives on Thursday with warmer temperatures to start off another stormy period.
Short Term Forecast
Huge snow totals fell the last few days in the northern zone, with over 90 cms from Friday through Sunday at Portillo. They are opening terrain that has been closed for ten years due to lack of snow. Over the last 24 hours, Las Lenas received 70 - 180 cms from base to summit! The higher elevations of the northern resorts really paid off and conditions are amazing right now.
Check out this shot from Portillo yesterday.
Forecast for Monday 9/11 - Wednesday 9/13
Heavy snow continues across the Andes today, with significant accumulations expected. Expect 5 - 12 cms for the lower elevation central resorts, with 10 - 20 cms at higher elevation resorts. In the north, another 10 - 20 cms are possible. Snow will become showery in the evening and continue overnight and into part of Tuesday, with a few additional cms possible. Wednesday, believe it or not, should be mainly dry. There haven't been too many of these recently, so enjoy the fresh snow and terrain openings.
Forecast for Thursday 9/14 - Sunday 9/17
As early as Wednesday night our next storm will be on our doorstep. A strong storm taking a southerly track will bring warm temperatures with some rain and mixed precipitation initially. This storm will focus on the central and southern mountains, with snow levels rising to 2100 m on Thursday. This will result in rain at most resorts up to at least mid-mountain.
A cold front will begin to move in Thursday and cool things off substantially by Friday afternoon, turning rain back to snow. Friday through Sunday will feature heavy snowfall, with 30 - 70 cms for the central resorts.
Check out the forecast from the Canadian model for this period below.
Extended Forecast
Outlook for Monday 9/18 - Friday 9/22
For early next week, the models show a weak storm moving through the region, bringing light snow on Monday and Tuesday. Right now, this doesn't look like more than a few cms, but I will keep an eye on it and have additional details on the Wednesday forecast. The latter part of the week looks dry at this time.
Thanks for reading the South America daily snow! Follow me @lstone84 on Instagram to check out some new content I will be creating for the North American summer months.
What's New