The computer weather models that we use to forecast snow often do a reasonable job of showing where and when storms might arrive. However, the big mountains of the west often present some surprises that the models cannot foresee, and sometimes snow totals come in much higher than the forecast.

This was the case in Colorado where a few northern mountains (Breckenridge, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Copper, Vail) received up to 4x the forecasted snow on Saturday, November 3rd.

This ‘extra’ snow gave Loveland a storm total of 14”, much of which can be seen in the image from their snow stake cam.

The storm over Colorado on Saturday (November 4) occurred in the middle of a train of storms that brought snow from British Columbia in the northwest through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado.

The final major storm in the train has moved through on Sunday night into Monday morning, and then for the rest of the week, lingering weak storms will continue to bring snow to the northern Rockies resulting in an additional 6+ inches over many days.

Much of the snow over the west on the map above will accumulate during the first half of the week.

Later in the week and during the upcoming weekend, the stormiest weather will retreat to the northwest and cooler air with some snow will also push toward the northeast (following a warm week with multiple times of rain, blah!).

The trend for the upcoming weekend is for cooler air to move to the northeast while the western US and Canada see fewer storms and warmer air.

That trends may continue through the week of November 12-16 as the longer-range outlooks show the cooler air (and likely best chances for snow) hanging over the eastern half of North America.

Thanks for reading and look for the next forecast on Thursday, November 8.

JOEL GRATZ

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