Big storm for the west AND the northeast

US and Canada Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest US and Canada Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago January 17, 2019

Summary

A powerful storm will bring feet of snow to most western states through the end of the week. Then this same storm will head east and should drop 1-2 FEET of snow on the New England resorts on Sunday. Looking ahead to next week, a weather pattern will become established that should bring multiple storms to the Rockies and the northeast.

Short Term Forecast

Forecast for Thursday and Friday

As advertised, 1-3 feet of snow has fallen across the west already (much of this in California) and an additional 1-3 feet will accumulate on Thursday and Friday. California will see the deepest totals, and Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado will also do quite well!

Forecast for the weekend

Everything in weather forecasting is connected, and this cannot be more apparent than looking at the forecast for the weekend. The strong storm that will hit the western US late this week will head east, maintain and increase its strength, and should bring 1-2 FEET of snow to New England on Sunday. The exact track of the storm will not be known until about Saturday, so at this time, we cannot know if the deepest accumulations will extend south into Pennsylvania and southern New York or if these areas will see more mixed precipitation.

Forecast for next week

Following the cross-country storm that will bring snow to the west on Thursday and Friday, and the northeast on Sunday, a weather pattern will become established and it may not change much for 1-2 weeks. This pattern will feature very cold air over the eastern 2/3rds of the US and Canada with storms riding from northwest-to-southwest down the spine of the Rockies and then over to the northeast. You can see this pattern on the snow forecast map below.

Extended Forecast

The outlook for January 26-30

The “cold east, warmer west” pattern should continue through the end of January. Expect storms to move close to the Rockies and head into the northeast. If this pattern shifts just a bit further east or west, there will be large changes to the actual snow forecast, so while we have a good idea about the general flow in the atmosphere, it’s too soon to look at a specific snow forecast for 10+ days into the future.