British Columbia gets hit with another big storm

An atmospheric river event has impacted Western Canada and the Northwest U.S. this week with rising snow levels and rain issues for some areas, but heavy snow for higher elevation areas especially north of the border in the British Columbia Interior. RED Mountain Resort in Southern BC had picked up a preliminary storm total of 28 cm (11 inches) as of Tuesday afternoon, and more snow will certainly be added to that total on Wednesday and Thursday morning's snow reports.

RED Mountain has now received new snow on 10 of the first 12 days of January and conditions are outstanding, as evidenced by this airy powder shot from earlier in the week.

Forecast for Wed, Jan 13 – Thu, Jan 14

Snow will continue across British Columbia, Alberta, and Washington on Wednesday with colder air and falling snow levels, while Idaho, Montana, and Northwest Wyoming will get in on the action as well. On Thursday, a weak disturbance will bring some light snow showers to the Northeast.

Forecast for Fri, Jan 15 – Sat, Jan 16

On Friday, a storm will bring a welcome round of snow to the Upper Midwest before swinging into the East on Friday night and Saturday with snow and rain expected. The higher elevations of Northern New England, where precipitation has a better chance of remaining all-snow, could potentially pick up some good snow totals with this storm.

In the West, the BC Coast Range and Alaska will be the most favored by a storm arriving on Friday, but this storm will fizzle out as it moves inland with only light snow expected across the Rockies on Saturday.

Forecast for Sun, Jan 17 – Mon, Jan 18

A relatively stronger storm will arrive from the northwest early on Sunday, bringing a round of snow to British Columbia and Washington initially, with light to moderate snow falling across the Rockies from Sunday afternoon into Monday. A trailing disturbance (behind the Friday-Saturday storm) will also move across the East on Sunday and Monday with another round of snow possible across the Mid-Atlantic and New England.

Outlook for Tue, Jan 19 – Sat, Jan 23

Colder temperatures are expected across much of North America during this period, except for the Southwest and Alaska where temperatures will be a bit warmer than average. A more active northwest flow storm track will set up in the West next week, which will favor Western Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northern and Central U.S. Rockies. The East will stay active next week as well with an additional storm or two possible. 

Thanks so much for reading! Check back for my next post on Friday, January 15th.

ALAN SMITH

OpenSnow Forecast Data Update

On Tuesday (1/12), we began updating the automated forecasts on OpenSnow with a proprietary blend of data from the GFS (American), GDPS (Canadian), and ECMWF (European) weather models.

Previously, we combined information from our local forecasters, the National Weather Service (NOAA), and data from the ECMWF (European) weather model. This method only provided hourly data for the United States and relied on a single model to produce our snow forecasts for the next 10 days.

Why is this new forecast data better than the old forecast data? The benefits include:

• Blending multiple global models increases accuracy and confidence in the forecast.
• Hourly data for any location in the world.
• Proprietary snow-to-liquid calculation to improve accuracy, especially in colder environments.
• Improved method for calculating the snow level (elevation that separates rain from snow) to provide a more realistic forecast, especially at the beginning of storms and during times of intense snowfall.
• Ability to create a forecast for any location and elevation to ensure that we are forecasting conditions on the mountain and not for a nearby town.

We also plan to add even more global and high-resolution models into our proprietary forecast blend over time. Our goal is to create the most accurate snow forecast and we're just getting started.

The data can be viewed as hourly forecasts for the next 5 days and daily forecasts for the next 10 days. Available data includes:

• Chance of Precipitation
• Day & Night Snow Forecast
• Day & Night Snow Level
• Daily High & Low Temperature
• Hourly Temperature
• Hourly Wind Speed
• Hourly Wind Gust
• Hourly Cloud Cover %

This new blend of forecast data is available on OpenSnow for over 2,000 locations around the world and we are adding new locations every day.

Explore Locations → OpenSnow.com/explore

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NEW: Wind Gust Map Layer

In addition to the Estimated Snow Depth, Current & Forecast Radar, Temperature Forecast, and Avalanche Forecast maps, we now have a Wind Gust map layer on OpenSnow!

This high-resolution map overlay provides forecasts for the next 18 hours and is available to All-Access subscribers on any device by clicking the "Maps" tab and selecting the "Wind Gust" overlay.

The data will update every hour with the latest available information.

For the OpenSnow iOS app, make sure you're updated to v3.5.3

For the OpenSnow Android app, make sure you're updated to v3.5.4

View all of our map overlays on any device by upgrading to All-Access for $29.99/year (Single) or $39.99/year (Group). The subscription includes unlimited Daily Snow reads, 3-day hourly forecasts, 10-day snow forecasts, and much more.

Wind Gust Forecast → OpenSnow.com/map