Summary:

The sunny weather continues this weekend and into next week.  The highs are in the 40's up above 8000 feet and in the 50's below that.  By Tuesday we could be in the 60's at lake level.  The winds pick up Wednesday ahead of a quick hitting storm for Wednesday night.  That storm could bring 5-10 inches to lake level and 10-15 inches to the mountains.  Then high pressure builds back in with a break in the storms for another week.

Details:

A nice weekend with a snowpack reported yesterday of 100% of average. 

The temperatures will peak out above 60 at lake level Tuesday as the warmest air moves in ahead of an approaching storm.  We should see the snowpack drop below average this week as well.

The forecast models have sped up the storm over the past 24 hours.  It looks like we could get a quick hit of colder air and heavy snow Wednesday night, with the storm clearing out Thursday morning.  

Here is the updated GFS total precip forecast.

The European model is slightly wetter with better spillover of snowfall to the East side of the basin.  Here is the updated snowfall forecast for Wednesday night.

It will be great to get a refresh of snow on the slopes.  

Unfortunately that is the only storm of confidence for the next 2 weeks.  The next system for next Saturday looks like it will stay to our North.  Then high pressure starts to build back in over the West Coast.

Long-Range:

It still looks like the ridge will build North into Western Canada week 2.  The forecast for a negative EPO pattern on the models supports that.  In that pattern we would hope to see storms push under the ridge into CA.  The models have been hinting at a storm pushing in Thursday the 25th, and possibly more after that, but that is more than 10 days out so we have a while to watch.

The way the pattern is setting up by the end of the month we are still watching for storms to break into CA going into March.  The CFSv2 is still quite wet for March showing stronger storms.  

For now we will continue wait and enjoy the nice weather.

Stay tuned...BA