US and Canada Daily Snow
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago December 24, 2018
West stays best, then a transition
Summary
The northwest is in the final stages of a two-week storm cycle that dropped over 100 inches of snow, and the rest of the west will see a storm or two during the Christmas week. After that, it looks like the coldest air will shift to the northeast during early 2019.
Short Term Forecast
Powder!
From December 10-24 we saw nearly continuous snow in the northwest, with some of the deepest amounts at Whistler where they recorded over 120 inches in 14 days.
In eastern British Columbia, Stellar Heliskiing posted this video from early in the storm cycle showing fantastic snow and playful terrain.
Forecast for this week
The main storm this week will bring up to one foot of snow to California on Monday night, then the system will head east and target Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico on Tuesday and Wednesday. When the storm gets to the east coast, we’ll likely see some rain on Friday before cold air returns for the weekend.
Forecast for the weekend
It looks like the northern corners of the US and the southern corners of Canada will be the focus for the most snow during the upcoming weekend.
Over the northwest, the final major storm in this amazing cycle should move through with 12+ inches of snow, and the northeast should see cooler air return following Friday’s rain, and conditions improving on Saturday into Sunday.
Extended Forecast
Forecast into early 2019
For outlooks beyond 10 days, I like to look at the predicted temperature pattern as this can be a better clue for finding snow than looking at precipitation forecasts, where are often less accurate.
During the first week of 2019, it looks like there could be a system lurking across the southwest, but the main transition should be drier and warmer weather over the northwest and corresponding cooling and stormier weather over the northeast.
It does appear that the first half of January will trend toward cooler weather over the east and warmer and drier weather over the west, though of course this just seems to be the general trend and does not mean that the east will always be snowy or that the west will always be dry – specific outlooks beyond 15 days are generally not very accurate!
Thanks for reading and look for the next forecast on Thursday, December 27.
JOEL GRATZ
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About Our Forecaster
Joel Gratz
Founding Meteorologist
Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.
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