Wednesday - Sunday

The main weather event over the next 5 days will be the wind. We have a very strong Santa Ana Offshore wind event setting up today into tomorrow, Thursday. 

You can see below on the NAM 12KM 700mb (10K) level graphic that winds at the ridgetop level around 10K FT will be approaching 60 knots in many areas. That will brings gusts easily in the 50 - 70 MPH range on the exposed ridges of the resorts for the next 2 days. Lift operations are very likely to be affected. 

Winds will be out of the Northeast generally and they should finally subside by Thursday night. 

Temps will be cold with winds and likely drop to near freezing for highs tomorrow before rebounding quickly on Friday into the 40's. We stay pretty dry through Sunday before our next system comes into the region. 

We start cooling off rapidly by Sunday with highs only in the low 30's with Southwest winds picking back up with more clouds. Winds could definitely get gusty with 30 - 45 MPH gusts on the ridge. 

Monday System

You can really see how cold it gets by Monday morning with 10K FT level temps at -10C or lower. That's only 14F, so plenty cold enough to snow down to the bases of all the mtns and thousands of feet below. The snow line could be sitting around 3K FT by Monday. 

I'm not going to get into too many details regarding this storm as it's still over 5 days out and evolving constantly with the models runs daily. 

You can see the initial estimate that the WPC model has for precip by Monday morning. About half an inch of liquid in some of the wettest spots in the mtns with Mtn. Baldy likely getting the best shot of seeing the most out of this system. 

At this time I'm thinking it could be a decent little snow storm with maybe double digit totals because of all the cold air. I'll be working through the details over the next few days. 

Going into the rest of next week and into the first few days of February you can see below that the pattern doesn't favor a trough over the West Coast. It's not a big ridge either, but the chances of seeing more precip through most of next week remain low. 

The Ensemble runs of the GFS definitely pick up on the fact that it should stay mostly dry as very few members show anything even going into the 2nd week of February. 

So we could be looking at a one and done scenario... I'll keep you posted though and see how this all evolves in the coming week. 

Till the next one... Mike out. 

"Fresh Tracks!
This week The Flakes talk about the Snow Returning to the Northeast, chat with Julien Ross about the Great Snow in New Mexico, report Snowfall Around the rest of The U.S., look at the Snowfall Forecast for The Upcoming Week, and discuss the Long-Range Snowfall Patterns."